Industry Insider Q&A

What issues is your sector facing?

“There is a long list for dairy and another long list for organic, but the highlights for dairy are clearly the future of supply management, interprovincial trade in milk, overall milk consumption (which is fairly flat), continuing concentration of dairy processing capacity both in terms of plants and ownership, and the aging population. For organic the shortlist issues are ensuring the implementation of the Canadian organic standards and of equal provincial standards, the rapidly declining number of processing options, imports, especially those from China, and the need to provide local organic food across the country. Obviously, the current economic environment is an issue for all of us and it’s not any different for organics.”

What opportunities DO YOU SEE?

“There are opportunities for small-scale processing of a range of dairy products. This would be especially true for cheese if the current system of restricting plant quota was corrected. Across Canada in the organic sector there are all kinds of markets that are underserviced and have interesting demand for small-scale processors to meet. Turning organic into a commodity managed the way large food companies are managed is not an opportunity but rather could be a death sentence for organics and an expensive distraction for large food companies.”