Ontario's dairy producers eye market growth

Thursday, January 12, 2012

by SUSAN MANN

Market growth remains a top priority for Dairy Farmers of Ontario, says board chairman Bill Emmott.

“We’re always looking for ways to stimulate different markets,” says Emmott, who was re-elected as chair Jan. 12 during a Dairy Farmers board meeting held after the organization’s annual meeting in Toronto earlier this week.

Emmott says one example of how the organization stimulates growth is the work being done by its ethnic market specialist, Nissim Avraham. His work in growing the ethnic market has added 1.5 to two per cent to Ontario’s quota in the past three years.

Emmott has served as board chair since 2009, was vice-chair from 2005 to 2009 and has been on the board since 1999. He represents farmers in Brant, Haldimand, Halton, Niagara, Norfolk and Wentworth.

David Murray, who represents dairy farmers in Huron and Perth counties, was elected first vice-chair and Ian Harrop, who represents farmers in Dufferin, Peel, Simcoe and Wellington, was elected second vice-chair.

Emmott says another priority for the organization this year is maintaining the integrity of dairy products and protecting the identity of milk as a brand. The organization keeps a sharp eye on the marketplace to ensure non-dairy beverages aren’t being called milk. For example, beverages made with soybeans are sometimes referred to as soymilk.

“It’s got nothing to do with milk and it’s trying to confuse the consumer,” he says, noting when they come across products like that they report it to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency because it’s false advertising.

Dairy Farmers’ other priority is building on the success of the national 100% Canadian Milk logo program for products made exclusively from Canadian milk or ingredients derived from Canadian milk. Work in this area includes continuing generic advertising so consumers will ask retailers for products with the logo.

Dairy Farmers released figures at its annual meeting showing it marketed 2.524 billion litres of milk for the fiscal year ending Oct. 31, 2011. It billed processors $1.98 billion for the milk.

The organization retained $69.3 million for transportation, $14.4 million for the administration of the marketing system, $32.8 million for market expansion, $1 million to support research, and $500,000 to operate the Canadian Quality Milk program, which is the industry’s food safety program.

It also collected $1.5 million for CanWest DHI to support milk recording programs.

The $1.87 billion balance was paid to 4,116 licensed provincial dairy farmers, which supports about 9,600 families. BF