Profiles

Marc Cormier’s top priority is making sure Canadians are getting the world’s highest quality chicken.

Marc Cormier: Being the best he can be. In the early 1960s, when Yvon Cormier got into the business of raising chickens in Saint-Paul-de-Kent, New Brunswick, he had no idea he was laying the foundation for a thriving family business.

“Back then, we didn’t have a system in place for ensuring producers could make a good living,” says his grandson, Marc Cormier. “The first few years were difficult for him, which is why he also raised beef and dairy cattle. In 1966, my father, Edgar, started working with him. In 1967, they built another barn and a few years after that they built another one.”

In the late 1970s, however, with the development of a national chicken supply-management system, things changed, not only for Marc’s grandfather and father, but also for chicken farmers throughout Canada.

Cormier, who is Chairman of the Chicken Farmers of New Brunswick, a provincial organization dedicated to ensuring that farmers produce the right amount of fresh, safe, high-quality chicken, is glad things improved. “For three generations, the operation has supported our family, and we’ve created lots of employment opportunities for local people,” he says. But producing chickens is more than a business for Cormier. It’s a passion.

He likes to keep up on the latest innovations in the industry to ensure that his chickens meet, and exceed, the highest possible standards. Fortunately, before getting into the business in the 1990s, he studied computer-engineering technology.”Having that technical knowledge is a big help in making sure everything runs smoothly. My chickens are my babies, and I want to make sure they have the best possible environment.”

Cormier says his biggest challenge is to be more productive while maintaining quality. In 2000, shortly after his brother Serge partnered with him, the two decided to make their own feed.”Sixty per cent of our production costs are for feed. Making it ourselves ensures our birds are getting the best possible nutrition. It also means we have more money to put into improving other areas of production.”Marc Cormier’s top priority is making sure Canadians are getting the world’s highest quality chicken. “We’re always improving. Being the very best we can be is what being a Canadian chicken farmer is all about.”

No doubt, his grandfather would agree.