The Rural Voice, 2001-04, Page 42Non -quota exports
could "open a
door" for belea-
guered creart producers
who want to expand or get
into the business, says
John Becker of Paisley,
president of the Ontario
Cream Producers
Association.
Becker was addressing
about 40 cream producers.
half of them Old Order
Mennonites, who attended
a meeting in Milverton to
hear two people with
offers that could brighten
their futures. Deb Pletsch
of Nutri Spring Farms Ltd.
offered a premium for
'cream produced without
any animal by-product
protein or any. use of
genetically altered grains.
David Tyers of Milk
Trade in Oakville outlined
a proposal that could
allow cream producers to
take advantage of export
markets, though at vastly
lower prices than the
amount they now receive
for butterfat for domestic
use under Dairy Farmers
of Ontario.
For Ontario's 135
farm -separated cream
producers, any new
proposal is of interest
because of the catch-22 in
which they have found
themselves since the
amalgamation of the old
milk and cream marketing
boards. Many remaining
cream producers took
advantage of that
amalgamation to convert
their cream quota to milk
quota and upgrade to milk
shippers. Others sold their
quota and made a good
profit.
Those who were left,
however, could only
expand if they bought
whole -milk quota at full
price, then sold the cream
only, getting a fraction of
the return milk producers
receive.
The situation was
38 THE RURAL VOICE
Exports to the rescue?
Beleaguered cream producers wonder
if exports could be a way to stay in
business or even expand
By Keith Roulston
Cream producers like Christian Ropp of Brunner are
looking for ways to stay in business.
particularly difficult for
farmers in Ontario's eight
Old Order Amish and
Mennonite communities
who aren't allowed to
have electricity and bulk
tanks becausc of their
religion. What's more,
because
there's a "If it's commercially
minimum
sound to do it,
q
purchuao set toa we're going to do
get into the It."
business,
many young Old Order
farmers found it
impossible to get into the
business. For these
farmers owning five to ten
cows, separating the
cream and feeding the
milk to veal calves or pigs
is part of a way of life.
So there was interest, if
not immediate sign-ups,
when Tyers got up to
speak. He has been
involved in milk exporting
since the market for
private brokers opened up
14 months ago and
already has 13 producers
with no quota
shipping milk
for export,
about half the
export
production in
the province,
he says.
The market was opened
up when Canada lost a
World Trade Organization
challenge from the U.S.
and New Zealand over
exports of milk and dairy
products. The ruling
meant that marketing
boards were viewed as an
arm of government and
couldn't be involved in
exporting. DFO set up a
single agency through
Deloitte and Touche to
handle exports but Tyers,
who has been involved in
exporting dairy products
for 30 years, went through
the hoops to get into
exporting non -quota milk.
"DFO has been quite
co-operative," Tyers said.
If he signs up a producer
for export, he informs
DFO which inspects the
producer to see he meets
health standards, then
issues a permit. "DFO is
not allowed to
discriminate (against non -
quota producers) because
if they did they'd violate
WTO rules."
He began to explore
the cream issue last fall
and was sent by DFO to
Deloitte and Touche,
which in October told him
there was no policy in
place for cream producers.
In January they still had
no answer, he 'says, so he
went to trade officials at
the Department of Foreign
Affairs, Industry and
Trade who told him cream
producers absolutely had
the right to produce non -
quota cream to be
manufactured into butter
for export markets.
"If it's commercially
sound to do it, we're
going to do it," Tyers said.
Tyers presented figures
about what farmers could
expect in shipping to the
world market and
admitted that it was only
about 25-30 per cent of
what they receive for
cream produced under
quota. On the other side,
he said, farmers save on
buying quota.
my cream
producers know if
the proposal is
worthwhile, Tyers said. "I
can't make a decision
whether it's a good deal or