The Canadian Dairy Commission will seek out feedback from industry stakeholders next week on Canadian dairy farmers’ request for a mid-year raise in farmgate milk prices.
The CDC said June 2 it had received a request from Dairy Farmers of Canada for the increase “due to the current inflationary environment.”
If it’s approved, and if the approval sticks to what DFC is requesting, the increase would take effect Sept. 1 and would be deducted from any increase coming out of the CDC’s “routine” milk price review this fall.
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The CDC said its board will consult with stakeholders on the matter from Monday to Wednesday next week (June 13-15) and will announce its decision “in the days following these consultations.”
Normally, DFC said in a separate statement June 2, the CDC adjusts dairy farmgate prices once a year to reflect changes in costs of production, based on “numbers from the past year.”
Those numbers, DFC said, “do not reflect the current prices of inputs, which are skyrocketing.” Between last July and this March, costs have risen on inputs such as fertilizer, fuel and cattle feed, by 44, 32 and eight per cent respectively, DFC said.
The CDC pricing methodology “creates a gap between the true costs of producing milk today and the next annual adjustment,” the dairy farmer group said, and the current “exceptional circumstances” call for a mid-year adjustment to help bridge that gap.
Canadians, DFC said, generally understand dairy farmers “are not the cause of food inflation but have to adapt to the current reality just like everyone else,” and dairy farmers also understand the pressures consumers “in all walks of life” face right now.
“It is important to note that dairy farmers do not set prices at retail, or in foodservice, and the farmgate price of milk is just one of the many factors that go into the cost structure for the price paid by consumers for dairy products,” DFC added. — Glacier FarmMedia Network
