New Canadaian Program Hurts US Milk Exports

Is much of our milk exported to Cananda? National Milk Producers Vice President of Communications Chris Galen said the Canadian market is typically very tight, but more dairy products have made their way into the market over the last few years.

Galen: In recent years the US has been able to export some filtered milk from places like Wisconsin and New York state that is used primarily in cheese there and it’s priced at a discount to Canada’s own milled proteins and so Canadian cheese company and other processors have been able to avail themselves of the US product because our prices tend to be lower than theirs.

The Canadian government now wants to change the pricing structure of some of the Canadian milk that could be used in cheese manufacturing and make it more price competitive with American products…Galen said this move by Canada is likely a trade agreement violation, either with the World Trade Organization or the North American Free Trade Agreement This new pricing program will penalize processors that use imported dairy products

Galen: So this is something that is already beginning to happen we have already heard from companies on this side of the border that we have lost some export sales and we are really concerned this could become a permanent policy in Canada.

And given the over production of milk and lower prices this couldn’t happen at a worse time for America’s milk producers.