The Dairy Farmers
of Ontario marketing board has put out a call for more milk.
It has increased
quotas by five per cent, effective July 1.
This quota has no
restrictions and can be sold.
The five
provinces that jointly manage milk production, called P5, say that they need
more milk to meet demand.
Butter is
usually stockpiled during peak milk production season, which is just ending,
and this year the “stocks have not surpassed their updated target level of
35,000 tonnes,” says a statement from P5.
“Demand
for dairy products continues to be strong while P5 processing capacity has
increased since the beginning of April but continues to be closely monitored.”
It seems the milk industry has been caught short of supplies, just as the chicken industry was. In both cases, imports from the United States were curbed, but the Canadian farmers were not poised and ready to fill the gap left when the imports declined.
In the case of milk, it was diafiltered milk that was coming in without tariffs. The milk boards responded by cutting prices so Canadian processors would buy from Canadian farmers rather than U.S. processors.
In the case of chicken, the Canadian Border Services Agency was persuaded to use DNA testing to distinguish boneless chicken breast meat that was derived from spent fowl from meat derived from broilers.
There is no tariff on spent fowl meat, but there is a hefty tariff on broiler meat.
