Quebec's agricultural producers are warning Canadian negotiators not to put supply management on the table as they lead-up to the next round of NAFTA negotiations.

Supply management, the fixed quota system that regulates quantities and prices of agricultural products, is one of the many contentious issues negotiators are wrangling over in the ongoing North American Free Trade talks.

They begin again Sunday in Montreal – and Canada's agricultural sector is worried.

“In the last few years, this issue has been a tool negotiators use to get concessions,” said Ghislain Gervais, president of La Coop fédérée.

The agriculture industry group released a study Friday that claims up to 80,000 jobs could be lost in the egg and poultry sector alone if supply management is scrapped.

Without it, said Gervais, Quebec producers would be crowded out of the market and the family farm as we know it would be lost.

Producers joined forces with the province to send a message before the next round of talks begins.

“We have to trust the government and the negotiator on that issue and they seem to support heavily the supply management system but there's always a risk,” he said.

Former Quebec premier Jean Charest said while the U.S. is talking tough, the American agricultural industry needs NAFTA as much as Canada does.

“Publically, privately, they've said to the White House - fix it don't nix it. That's the line they used for a while – and there's a very simple reason: the farmers in the U.S. have done very well under NAFTA,” said Charest, who helped get the European Union on board with trade negotiations in 2007.

Charest said it would be political suicide for Canadian negotiators to turn their backs on supply management, especially as Ontario and Quebec head into elections this year.

Still, Charest said Canadians need to brace themselves for some changes, including, possibly, the end of NAFTA.

“Trade is about geography. Trade is geography. We are going to trade with the Americans. We were trading before NAFTA, so the world isn't going to collapse,” he said.

Prices may, however, change as both sides of the border slap tariffs on goods.

The next round of trade talks is considered the most important yet, which is why three extra days were added.

The Canadian government said it's prepared for every possible outcome.