Whole Chicken: export from Canada to Southeast Asia

Whole birds are bought by weight band, and the band is the specification: a buyer who orders "whole chicken" and nothing else receives whatever size the plant is running that week, which is a problem for a retailer sizing a shelf price and a bigger one for a foodservice operator costing a portion.

State the band in grams, state whether it is griller, roaster or fowl, and state what stays on the bird. Head-on and feet-on presentations are normal in several Asian markets and unusual in Canada, so a plant will not assume them. Giblets in or out is the same kind of question and is worth writing down instead of leaving to habit.

Chilled whole birds move by air and are a different trade from the frozen container volume. Most of what leaves Canada for Southeast Asia is frozen, and there the freezing method and the glaze, if any, decide what a kilogram is actually worth on arrival.

Canadian chicken is produced under supply management, which means export volume comes out of a system built to serve the domestic market first. That shapes availability and price in a way an exporter should raise early, not discover mid-negotiation.

Establishment eligibility for the destination gates all of it, and is settled before commercial terms are worth writing.