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
Comments
what it cost for the government to buy back all the quota from the DFO? does any one know how many units there are in ontario ?
Why don,t they get ride of the quota and buy our milk from China? Does that sound great to you .
Why buy it in China? There are lots of farmers willing to produce milk right here in Ontario......except they are currently barred from doing so because of DFO/quota.
Do you think if they open up the market that there will be a flood of people willing to work 7 days a week at a loss. They won,t be getting the price they get now. The supply management is the only way to give you the price you need to make a profit.
Yes, but what about all of the producers that were producing and willing to produce without quota, before the quota holders got scared and put a stop to that? More of them had bank loans and business plans in place and were ready to forge ahead. They are still out there. Lots of people work 7 days a week....not just the dairy industry.
Last time I seen all the milk being sold on contracts for sale in the States was shut down by the USA themselves. Now the milk flows into Canada from the USA, and without the supply man. the milk would flood the market = no profit for the dairy farmers up here.Good for consumers for short term but really bad for long term.
These guys are comedians - dairy farmers will consider every possible way to increase sales, except lower the price. That leaves them exactly like one-legged tap dancers trying to work up a new routine not just to attract more customers, but to keep existing customers from wanting their money back.
Stephen Thompson, Clinton, ON
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