Four years after the voice of the Canadian dairy processor lobby fell silent because its competitive member companies could not agree on a common message, the industry has decided to get its lobby act together again.
In mid-December, six major Canadian processors formed the Dairy Processors Association of Canada, vowing that the processor voice must be heard in the debate over national dairy policy, dairy prices and food industry regulation.
“It has become very obvious that the dairy processing industry needs a voice,” DPAC president and longtime Ottawa lobbyist Don Jarvis said in an interview. “The industry has interests that need to be advocated.”
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They include the processor interest in annual dairy price setting by the Canadian Dairy Commission and the long-standing attempt to reduce trade barriers between provinces.
In its first policy statement in mid-December, the new lobby group praised provincial premier talk of a new effort to eliminate interprovincial trade barriers.
As Quebec’s insistence that margarine sold in the province must not be butter-yellow is being taken to the Supreme Court of Canada if the court will agree to hear the case, the processor lobby said it is important that all provinces abide by a 1997 interprovincial agreement that provinces would standardize dairy rules.
It also called on the new federal government of Paul Martin to take a stand on the need for less restricted Canadian internal trade.
Jarvis said Martin wants to modernize the Canadian economy.
“Supporting the provinces in putting in place a free and open domestic market for dairy and other food products will be an important cornerstone of that platform.”
Traditionally, the National Dairy Council represented dairy processor interests. Four years ago, the council was dissolved, a victim of competing member interests and priorities.
The dairy processing industry is highly concentrated with three companies processing 71 percent of Canada’s industrial milk output. Those three companies – Parmalat, Saputo and Agropur – own 36 percent of processing plants.
