Canadian dairy farmers take steps to recapture specialty markets

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Comments

Thumbs up to Agropur for this decision! What about the other processors?
Canadians want 100% CANADIAN MILK!

The above posting is nonsense and completely-untrue for the thousands of Canadian consumers who regularly shop for dairy and poultry products in the US, including buying poultry products (particularly turkeys) grown, processed and packaged in Canada but which, thanks to the price-gouging effect of supply management, are sold at a fraction of the Canadian price in US stores.

Shoppers want value for their money, yet supply management doesn't provide it, period.

Until every Canadian dairy processor gets Class 6 pricing on everything they buy from the robber-barons running Canada's dairy cartel, the double-standards will still exist. Ever since frozen pizza makers got to buy their dairy ingredients at world price, it's been a down-hill spiral for supply management's ability to stiff EVERYBODY at the farm gate.

Given the dairy cartel's ability to cave-in to the reality faced by frozen cheese makers and dairy processors who imported diafiltered milk, why not deal with the reality faced by Canadian consumers living near the US border and give them the benefits of Class 6 pricing to keep them shopping here rather than in the US?

As a cruel irony, today's London Free Press related a story about how Port Huron, MI, is hosting a "Canada Appreciation Day" this upcoming Victoria Day Weekend, due, no doubt, to the tremendous economic impact Canadians have in the dairy and poultry aisles of Port Huron's supermarkets.

Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON

At the time I bought my Ford F-150 pickup truck, I, like any other consumer, cared only about value for my money:

(1) It had all the options I wanted, and none more
(2) I bought it in late January of the following model year and, as such, Ford was offering a good price and good terms in order to sell remaining prior-year inventory.
(3) I was able to take advantage of an affinity program similar to the one the OFA has long-since had with Chrysler.

Only after I took delivery did I notice that the truck was made in Canada, thereby not just giving me a good deal, but I also supported Ford's Canadian assembly line workers who buy the food produced by Canadian farmers. That some of these workers might have chosen to take my money to the US to buy dairy and poultry products isn't my concern because I, at least, have supported, albeit unintentionally, the Canadian economy by giving these workers the money allowing them to buy dairy and poultry products in the first place, regardless where they choose to buy them.

Therefore, the bald-faced claim "Canadians want 100% CANADIAN MILK" rings rather hollow for any number of reasons:

(A) When was the last time, if ever, any Canadian dairy farmer bought a pickup truck because it was made in Canada rather than because he/she could take personal advantage of an affinity program such as the one offered by OFA?
(B) When was the last time, if ever, any Canadian dairy farmer bought ANYTHING on the basis of Canadian origin?
(C) When was the last time, if ever, the above poster, and/or any Canadian dairy farmer, counted the Canadian licence plates on the cars in the parking lot outside any grocery store in a US city on the Canada/US border? Do the owners of and/or passengers in these cars want 100% CANADIAN MILK? Do pigs have wings?

Once again, the blatant - "We see every reason for you to buy from us but we see no reason for us to buy from you" hypocrisy of Canadian dairy farming reveals itself, and once again demonstrates exactly why supply management is not well-liked and will not be missed.

Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON

You are so right on. People in On. would pay more to buy milk from the small 20 cow mixed farm, but not from these (rich) large farmers today.

I think you may be living in the past, somewhere around 1960 but if that was true then the Canadian average herd size is about 100 cows smaller the the dairy herd average in the US... Just another selling point to draw Canadian consumers to.

The majority of people spending money at the grocery store buy on price . Surveys have been done of customers entering the store and all the answers are all warm and fuzzy going in but the grocery cart tells a different story when checked on the way out . So nice to think that so many farmers and their representatives are living in the era of Alice in Wonderland . Reality speaks a harsh truth .

Too many people at too many farm organizations are men who aren't the primary grocery shoppers in their household - that makes them, by definition and by first principles:

(1) disconnected from reality.
(2) completely without any understanding of consumer purchasing behaviour, even in their own culture and income level.

A business truism lost on most of primary agriculture is that you're doomed to fail if/when you don't understand your market and when male-dominated farm organizations pass resolutions to try to, for example, "educate" consumers, it proves they "just don't get it".

Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON

I agree some what but would not put all of my eggs in one basket when it comes to gender differences on groceries . I do a fair share of the grocery shopping in my household to take the burden off of my wife having to do it after work . There are times we do it together .

I will admit that I used to try buy local and Canadian products but that went out the window pretty quick after seeing how wasteful our Ontario and Canadian Governments are with my tax dollars . I don't feel the need to support those who are getting gobs of money from gov programs when I can't even get a program that works for my sector but am expected to smile with all of the current and coming regulations . Now I buy on price and buy what I want . If there is some thing that is not right or makes me sick I trust that the Gov inspectors are doing their job . If not I can hire a lawyer . They need work too !

What farm organization does the marketing in a grocery store ? Better yet what Ontario farm group stocks the shelves in any grocery store?

We wish ! I would have those Apple-sized half-green strawberries from California out of there in a second !

I am sure there are low income families on micro-budgets that would agree with you. However there are also couples that look at grocery shopping as a challenge rather than a nessesity.The couples whose kids have left the nest and check the flyers regularly for grocery sales and then proceed after food shopping to drive their Lexus over to the liquor and beer store to pick out a nice mid-range bootle of wine and a 24 of Coor's light,giving no thought that what they just spent on booze almost equaled their weeks grocery tab.
The reality is that Canadians are very fortunate when it comes to what we spend on food.

Why do people in Canadian agriculture feel compelled to try to divert attention away from the fact that supply management screws people at the retail level by claiming we, on an aggregate basis, get a bargain on food?

More to the point, why can't people in Canadian agriculture realize the fallacious nature of that argument in that a "good deal" for Canadian food consumers would only get even better if they weren't being deliberately gouged on their dairy and poultry purchases by greedy supply managed farmers?

Supply managed farmers, in particular, never seem to be able to leave the irrelevant luxury car and alcohol shibboleths out of the equation when trying to justify their own abilities, when compared to other farmers, to buy luxuries, like land, that other farmers cannot afford, thanks to the purchasing power afforded by 200% tariff barriers on dairy and poultry products.

Sigh, another day, another half-truth from an anonymous defender of agriculture's double-standards!

Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON

MOST CANADIANS JUST WANT LOWER PRICES AT THE STORE ,THEY DO NOT CARE WHERE THE DAIRY PRODUCT COMES FROM! YOU THINK CANADIAN SHOPPERS WOULD SUPPORT DAIRY FARMERS IN CANADA IF THEY HAD A CHOICE. ASK ANYONE WHO TRAVELS THE USA AND CAN ENJOY THE CHOICES OF DAIRY FOODS AT HALF THE PRICE NO MATTER WHAT STATE YOU VISIT, THEY WOULD BUY AND SUPPORT US DAIRY FARMERS AHEAD OF CANADIAN FARMERS. DAIRY PRICES ARE SOLELY DRIVEN BY GREEDY DAIRY FARMERS IN CANADA! WHY DO CANADIANS SHOP ACROSS THE BORDER FOR ALL THEIR DAIRY. CHICKEN AND TURKEY WHEN THEY LIVE CLOSE AND CAN MAKE THE TRIP WITHIN AN HOUR. EVEN THE LOW DOLLAR HAS NOT STOPPED CROSS BORDER SHOPPING,WAKE UP AND STOP POSTING YOUR GARBAGE. I WOULD BET THE FARM IF EVERYONE COULD CROSS BORDER SHOP THE SUPPLY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM WOULD BE GOING AND THE MILLIONAIRE FARMERS WOULD BE OUT OF BUSINESS! THAT IS A FACT,A WORD OF ADVICE ,STOP RIPPING OFF CANADIAN CONSUMERS BEFORE IT IS TO LATE,MOST PEOPLE THAT CROSS BORDER SHOP WILL NEVER BE YOUR CUSTOMER AGAIN!" BILL DENBY IMPORTER/ EXPORTER

You just proved a point that Ontario farmers are doomed. Customers are importing food and also buying imported food. So why save farmland if 'most people that cross border shop will never be your customer again'? Farmers should grow houses. At least they can make some money in the short term as the majority of farmers are in the retirement age zone today.

Ask any dairy farmer in the U.S. if they are satisfied with the farm gate price of milk right now! I bet in your travels you met a few that would appreciate some price stability. Does someone have to produce at a loss for the benefit of consumer pricing. Why don't ya buy yourself a cow if ya dislike the price!

Ian Cumming has noted, on many occasions, that US banks typically don't lend more than $3,000 per cow to dairy farms which, on a 150 cow dairy farm, would amount to $450,000, yet many Ontario dairy farmers would appear to owe at least that much just on their houses.

Therefore, any comparison of what it means to "produce at a loss" between Canada and the US is silly, and little more than grasping at straws by the Canadian dairy industry in an emotional rather than a rational attempt to defend:

(1) over $25 billion in dairy farmer owned quota values
(2) their ability to gouge consumers at will.

More to the point, the above poster's blustering challenge - "Why don't ya buy yourself a cow if ya dislike the price?" - is exactly what US farmers have done because of Canada's inability, under NAFTA, to place tariffs on the import of diafiltered milk into Canada.

However, the biggest problem facing Canada's dairy farmers is their refusal to accept that they cannot bully the rules of NAFTA the way they have been able to bully Canadian politicians, Canadian consumers, and other Canadian farmers for the better part of a generation.

I am sure the lions share of that 231 million lost revenue was being felt in Ontario.If the new lower world-priced class 6 can claw back some of those millions then it's well worth it to DFO producers.Its no wonder some of the other Provinces are not eager to go along with the new pricing, they don't have a large dairy (over)producing state like New York on the other side of the border.
I salute the DFO and Agropur for the actions they have taken.We can't just sit back and wait for our Government to enforce National cheese standards, they are too afraid of stepping on a few US of A toes.

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