Dairy sector pushes for federal support

Feb 27, 2019

Reps spoke about industry compensation in relation to different trade agreements

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

The federal government should help the Canadian dairy sector adapt to new trade agreements, industry reps say.

Market concessions made during CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership), CETA (Comprehensive and Economic Trade Agreement) and USMCA (United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement) negotiations have put the national dairy industry at a disadvantage.

Canada will lose 8.4 per cent of its domestic market share and $450 million in annual revenue to foreign dairy products because of these trade deals, said David Wiens, vice-president of Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC).

Combined with pre-existing imports under the World Trade Organization, about 18 per cent of Canada’s dairy market will be filled by foreign products by 2024, he added.

“These agreements will inhibit not only the sector’s ability to grow but also to maintain current market share,” he told the Standing Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry on Tuesday. “This is eroding dairy farmers’ confidence in the future of our sector, particularly for our young farmers and lenders who have invested in assuming market growth.”

Ottawa should provide farmers with proper compensation to make up for this market loss, industry reps say.

Dairy Farmers of Canada outlined how the government should support the sector.

“Any compensation for agricultural losses must be through direct payments to producers,” Pierre Lampron, DFC president, told the ag committee. “These payments need to be dispersed in the first six years of the trade agreements’ implementation.”

The government should give Canada Border Services Agency and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency tools to apply regulations and standards to dairy product imports. And the establishment of a new ag working group to study government and trade measures would help the industry, Lampron added.

Canada’s federal ag minister agrees that dairy farmers must be taken care of once these trade deals come into effect.

The U.S. will receive access to almost 4 per cent of Canada’s dairy market once the USMCA is signed into law.

Helping Canada’s supply managed industries thrive will be on the federal government’s agenda, said Lawrence MacAulay, Canada’s ag minister

“There’s an expected increase in dairy consumption this year in the country and we want for that to continue,” he told reporters during a Friday conference call. “We will make sure that the supply management sector in the dairy and other areas will continue to expand and prosper in our country.”

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.