In Canada, supply management is a way for farmers – and more specifically, those who produce milk, chickens and eggs – to control, through a marketing system, the supply or quantity of their commercial products. In order to market their products, producers must hold a permit, commonly known as “quota,” without which they would not be able to sell their products to a processing plant. This paper presents the origins of supply management in Canada, the regulatory framework in which it operates and its three pillars: production control, pricing mechanisms and import control. It also briefly discusses the concerns raised about certain recent international agreements.
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