Dairy Farmers of Canada have launched an advertising campaign in the Ottawa area to counteract arguments that high cheese prices are hurting the restaurant business.
The dairy farmer organization’s ads in Ottawa media are aimed at members of Parliament, at a time when critics have been stepping up arguments to politicians that supply management protections, with its quota and tariff system, hurt domestic consumers through higher prices and damage Canada’s credibility as an international trade negotiator promoting increased access to markets.
The Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association has been a leading critic of supply management and its impact on dairy product prices, arguing that higher cheese prices make Canadian restaurants less competitive in the face of cheaper imported frozen pizza that sidestep supply management pricing.
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Eastern Ontario dairy farmer Tom Pasco with dairy cow Bessie is featured in the DFC ads.
“The only one being milked is Bessie,” he says. “The (CRFA) is blaming dairy farmers like me for food costs that hurt their profits. Really? Not that we’re complaining but on the average medium pizza, we make less than the delivery guy’s tip.”
Pasco asks if the CRFA is not overstating its case. “Isn’t your argument a stretch?”
The ad refers readers to the website www.yourmilk.ca where the dairy lobby challenges arguments regularly made by critics like the CRFA.
It says the end of cost-based supply management price setting would not mean cheaper dairy products for Canadians. “Deregulation of the dairy industry in U.K., Australia and New Zealand has shown that farm prices came down but consumer prices kept increasing with inflation.”
DFC says the farmer share of a $2.25 glass of milk in a restaurant is 21 cents.
And to counter the argument that protectionist supply management blocks imports, DFC argues that dairy imports supply six percent of the Canadian market and poultry imports take 7.5 percent of the market — higher than the United States and the European Union.
While the critics have been stepping up their criticisms of supply management during the past year, federal politicians from all parties remain supportive of the system.
