- The dairy commission decided against a September increase.
Canada’s dairy farmers will have to wait another six months for a milk price hike that will offset some of the damage done by BSE, the Canadian Dairy Commission has decided.
The commission had raised the spectre of a one-time Sept. 1 price hike because the dairy industry has been facing BSE-related losses due to lower cull cow values and a U.S. border shut to dairy cow exports.
Normally, dairy price increases happen just once a year, announced in December for a Feb. 1 implementation.
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After a July 13 consultation with industry players, the CDC decided to stick with the once-per-year pattern, promising a “significant” price increase next February.
“We could have done a modest price increase in September and then another in February but after considering the evidence and the BSE relief funds that already are going out from government, some to dairy farmers, we decided to wait until February,” CDC chair John Core said.
Processors, food manufacturers and retailers had protested that it would be unfair to increase their dairy costs in mid-year when many had signed contracts for the year based on price levels set Feb. 1, 2004.
“We thought it was better to wait,” said Core, a former Dairy Farmers of Canada president who now presides over the government commission that sets support prices for butter and skim milk powder. The support prices set a pattern for cross-industry pricing.
But farmers are outraged by the delay.
“The CDC has lost touch with producer reality,” said New Brunswick dairy producer and DFC first vice-president Jacques Laforge, who is expected to be named DFC president this week at the group’s annual meeting in Moncton, N.B.
