Don’t ask the Canadian marketing boards. Ask the Americans.
They are reporting that they are shipping more butter, cream, cheese and milk to Canada, citing a report from Global Agricultural Information Network.
Canadian cheese imports are increasing to 36,000 tonnes of which 20,400 are from the European Union.
Sarina Sharp, analyst with the Daily Dairy Report, said “Canada remains hungry for dairy fats, and that’s great news for the U.S. dairy industry.”
Canada, the top market for U.S. butter and milkfat, accounted for more than 30 per cent of U.S. exports of butter and milkfat in each of the past five years. Through October of this year, Sharp said 28 per cent of U.S. exports of butter and milkfat have shipped to Canada.
“Canada is also the primary market for U.S. cream, and in the first 10 months of 2021, three out of every four loads of U.S. cream sent abroad went to Canada,” she said.
Sustained strong demand has depleted Canadian butter stocks to 26,000 MT, but increased butter production in Canada next year is expected to rebuild stocks to at least 35,000 MT.
Through October, Sharp noted that Canada imported a record-breaking 43 million pounds of butter, 30 per cent more than in 2020, and Canada’s year-to-date cream imports were 56 per cent greater than the previous high, set in 2015. They were also more than four times those of 2020, the year pandemic restrictions choked off foodservice demand.
Canada’s milk production increased by 2.8 per cent to the end of September, but fell short of increased demand.
“It’s possible Canada stepped up dairy imports even more in November and December, after heavy rains and flooding devastated parts of British Columbia, where about nine per cent of Canada’s milk is produced,” Sharp said.
“Flooding killed hundreds of dairy cows and displaced thousands. It also disrupted transportation. Some inaccessible farms were even forced to dump milk.”
There was some fluid milk shipped in from nearby states, but those statistics were not in the report.
