Exporting Heritage Turkeys to Nepal

Canada has developed a genetically dense poultry system, which includes turkeys. Canadian Heritage Turkeys are the best approach to helping the Nepal community because they require less attention and hands on work to develop and mature properly.

The industrialized turkey when compared to the Heritage Turkey would be far more of an inconvenience to the Nepalese farmers due to their incapability to walk, and run making them unable to forage the pasture efficiently (Burros, 2001). Heritage Turkeys are well suited to Nepal due to their instinctual, uninvolved reproductive practices, unlike the commercial turkeys that do not lay eggs as a consequence of their rapid growth rate, their extensive breast size no longer allows them to be able to breed on their own, and must be artificially inseminated in order to reproduce”(Burros, 2001). Heritage turkeys are the main classification name, but within that classification there are many breeds that include, the Standard Bronze, Bourbon Red, Narragansett, Jersey Buff, Slate, Black

Spanish, White Holland, and later added to the standard were the Royal Palm, White

Midget, and Beltsville Small White (Mastrude, 2004).

 

Turkey Farming Within Canada

Turkey farming has slowing been a growing industry within Canada, annual sales of turkey parts and processed turkey products in Canadian supermarkets increased

from 8.8 Mkg in 1993, to 18.2 Mkg in 2014.(Turkey Farmers of Canada, n.d). On average, in 2014, Canadians consumed 147.0 million kg of turkey, with a per capita consumption of 4.1 kg. An estimated 69.9 Mkg of turkey products were purchases, and 51.7 Mkg of that retail were whole turkeys that were purchased (Turkey Farmers of Canada, n.d). Most of the turkey production in Canada takes place within Ontario, followed by Quebec, with each operation usually raising between one to seven flocks a year, depending on the two main factors such as the size of the birds and the size of the operation (Stats Canada, 2009). Turkeys are under a supply management system within Canada, meaning that agricultural production quotas, marketing boards, and the control of trade to regulate agricultural production and prices are implemented upon the turkey farmers of Canada (Stats Canada, 2009). The National Farm Products Council oversees the Canadian Turkey Marketing Agency (CTMA), and estimates the approximate demand for turkey annually, determines the required production nationally, and distributes the production among the provinces (Stats Canada, 2009). In turn, the provincial boards allocate production among the individual producers and ensure they are within this allocation (Stats Canada, 2009). In a supply-managed commodity, producers buy quota from a limited amount available to that specific province (Stats Canada, 2009). With the supply management in place turkey production is controlled and farmers are able to receive a relatively stable return on their stock (Stats Canada, 2009). If a trade agreement is issued between Nepal and Canada, the quota projections for turkeys will skyrocket in order to ensure the supply is met for the demands of the Nepalese farmers and Canadians, and in turn will give Canadian turkey farmers a chance to buy more quota and produce more turkeys.