The study published in Ecological Economics said 6.8 billion litres has been discarded since 2012. That could have supplied the annual dairy intake for 4.2 million Canadians, it found.

Sylvain Charlebois, one of three co-authors, said his colleagues from Europe and the United States initiated the study after a Canadian dairy farmer last year filmed himself dumping thousands of litres.

They developed a methodology to quantify the amount nationally.

“It was actually quite shocking,” Charlebois said after presenting the Robertson Lecture at the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy in Regina.

“My expectation was maybe 100 million litres a year. but it was just so much higher.”

The study found the waste over the last 12 years could be as much as 10 billion litres worth $14.9 billion. That represents seven per cent of milk production. The co-authors said it is a consequence of inefficiencies within the supply management system.

Charlebois, from Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab, Thomas Elliot from Aalborg University and Benjamin Goldstein from the University of Michigan used a material flow analysis to examine the environmental, economic and nutritional costs of the dumped milk.

At the upper estimate of 10 billion litres, they said that contributed to about 8.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions, which compared to the yearly emissions of 350,000 vehicles.

They said milk dumping should be illegal in Canada and called for more transparency on how much surplus milk is produced and wasted to help the industry identify how to reduce the problem.

Charlebois said it’s imperative the Canadian Dairy Commission manage surpluses as it does with butter.

“We have a strategic reserve for butter so we should do the same with powdered milk and look at different opportunities, perhaps supply to food banks,” he said.

“Dairy farmers are already quite generous toward food banks. I’m just talking about the surpluses.”

The study said revised dairy quotas to better align with market demand and consumer preferences could prevent overproduction and said overproduction should be penalized.

“With supply management I do believe we shouldn’t waste one litre of milk, unlike the U.S.,” said Charlebois.

Jacques Lefebvre, chief executive officer of Dairy Farmers of Canada, said the nature of the study must be taken into account.

“The authors of the study acknowledge that much of their conclusions are drawn from ‘estimates’ rather than a robust data set,” he said.

“These data assumptions and calculations would need to be validated independently.”

He also said milk disposal is not a unique issue to Canada.

“Although supply management is aligned to the needs of the domestic market, when there is a surplus of milk, often it is linked to supply chain issues,” Lefebvre said.

“Milk is disposed only as a last resort after exploring all other alternatives. This is done in accordance with regulations and the costs are borne by the dairy farmers.”

Charlebois has long criticized the supply managed dairy industry.

During his presentation in Regina he said the system “is a wonderful thing but it’s being abused.”

He said Canada must be more consistent about its policies and used the construction of a baby formula plant in Kingston, Ont., as an example.

Canada Royal Milk is owned by the Chinese and was built for $284 million. Ottawa provided $30 million toward construction and the Ontario government provided $24 million.

“This plant now processes Canadian milk for Canadians and actually makes baby formula. My question to you, or to us, why isn’t that plant Canadian?” he asked the audience. “We know why.”

He said supply management doesn’t allow the sector to innovate and vertically integrate, and the Canadian “obsession for marketing boards has allowed the Chinese to build a plant in our own back yard.”

Fairlight, owned by CocaCola, has also built a plant in Peterborough, Ont. to produce lactose-free milk.

“That plant in Kingston is about to export products out of Canada with Canadian milk and we just gave $5 billion to Canadian dairy farmers because we signed three trade deals,” Charlebois said.

“That is not being consistent.”

He also said China received taxpayer funding for its plant while boycotting canola and pork because of the Huawei incident five years.

“That needs to be fixed,” he said.

Charlebois also said Bill C-282 to protect supply management in future trade deals should not pass.

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The firm says the brand bring together the work and genetic legacy of the companies that merged to establish Corteva, (notably Pioneer Seeds) and sets a new standard for agronomics, standability and yield for the category.

Greg Stubbs, an agronomist with Corteva, said the line of hybrids was grown only in plots in Ontario last year, and two heat-unit varieties were introduced commercially this season.

Corn with BMR technology, in use for over a decade among silage corn growers in Ontario, is known for its high digestibility and lower content of non-digestible fibre (NDF) when compared to traditional silage varieties. This translates into more milk produced per pound of silage consumed.

But the most widely-recognized drawback with BMR in the past, Stubbs admitted, has been lower yield potential.

“If you’re growing BMR, you just know you’re going to have to grow a couple more acres to get the same amount of silage.”

Standability has also been a challenge if weather conditions prevent harvest at ideal moisture levels.

Varieties developed for the Bovalta brand, however, have shown improvements on both fronts. And this has happened while maintaining the advantage BMR has in terms of milk production.

Last year’s difficult harvest conditions, when dairy producers sometimes had difficulty getting into the field to harvest corn silage at the optimum moisture level, provided insight into the performance of the Bovalta hybrids. And it was positive insight.

“I heard good feedback from last year,” Stubbs said.

—Updated Sept. 12. Corrects spelling of Bovalta in first paragraph.

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Federal agriculture minister Lawrence MacAulay announced the funding on Monday.

Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC) will receive up to $5 million over five years to “advance sustainability and public trust, leveraging the proAction quality assurance program,” a federal news release said, and it will fund sustainability initiatives.

DFC will also get up to $3.57 million over five years to strengthen its DairyTrace cattle traceability system, which was rolled out in 2020.

“Today’s investment is about giving Dairy Farmers of Canada the support they need to help farmers adopt sustainable practices to lower emissions, and improve the traceability and safety of dairy products,” MacAulay said in the news release.

In an emailed statement, DFC said it would be using some of the cash to evaluate and improve the proAction quality assurance program.

“For example, we are working on incorporating the new requirements from the revised Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Dairy Cattle,” DFC said. “We are also engaging in training and communication on these changes and other priority topics for farmers, industry professionals and service providers.”

With DairyTrace, DFC is looking at improving data or metrics related to animal health emergency management, the organization said. They’ll also work on supporting non-producer stakeholders like abattoirs and auction marts to report dairy cattle “traceability events” to DairyTrace.

DFC is also planning to conduct emergency disease response exercises.

“We will then implement those improvements, where needed, in DairyTrace,” DFC said.

In regard to sustainability, DFC said its plans include exploring and adopting a tool to help farmers measure their farms’ environmental footprints.

“The intent of this tool is to enable farmers to be able to measure where they are today and then measure again after implementing [best management pratices]. This includes benchmarking and measuring progress of continuous improvement.”

“DFC welcomes these AAFC investments which will help the Canadian dairy industry find long-term success in safety and sustainability,” said DFC president David Wiens in the news release. “These programs go hand in hand: improved traceability protects against and prevents disease spread, supporting the viability of our nation’s dairy farms. This results in less waste and a more sustainable food supply chain for all Canadians.”

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The increase will be 1.77 per cent, or about 1.5 cents per litre for milk going into processing plants, the Canadian Dairy Commission said Wednesday.

The commission had already published this increase in October, but said Wednesday that “exceptional circumstances” led to the decision to postpone its implementation.

The milk pricing formula includes 50 per cent of the year-over-year change in cost of production and 50 per cent of the change in the Consumer Price Index, or overall inflation.

After the commission published its proposal for the national pricing formula last month, however, the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers (CFIG) invoked an “exceptional circumstances” process that leads to an additional round of consultations between the CDC and other stakeholder organizations.

Those stakeholder groups include the Consumer Association of Canada, Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC), Dairy Processors Association of Canada, Restaurants Canada and the Retail Council of Canada, along with the CFIG.

During consultations, DFC said it recommended the delay because of ongoing food inflation.

Grocery stores have been under pressure from consumers and the federal government to stabilize prices, although some observers say most of the price increases are due to multiple factors within the supply chain.

Price changes for consumer products will vary on those factors.

Officials noted Wednesday the 1.77 per cent increase is well below the current overall inflation rate of 4.4 per cent.

— Karen Briere reports for the Regina bureau of the Western Producer.

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The Canadian Dairy Commission — the Crown corporation managing Canada’s milk supply — on Oct. 6 published the results of its Cost of Production survey, as a precursor to setting the annual milk price adjustment due to take effect Feb. 1, 2024.

The commission pegged the 2023 indexed Cost of Production (iCOP) at $93.09 per standard hectolitre, down 1.43 per cent from $94.44 in 2022, but marked the consumer price index (CPI) at 155.4, up 4.98 per cent from the 2022 level of 148.

The commission’s national pricing formula (NPF) is based on 50 per cent of the annual change in iCOP and 50 per cent of the change in the CPI, which in this case would result in an increase of 1.7736 per cent effective Feb. 1, 2024 — although the commission said that figure “is not necessarily equivalent to the next price adjustment.”

READ MORE: Farm-gate milk price increase predictable, says economist

The commission had given stakeholder groups until Friday (Oct. 13) to declare if they wish to invoke the “exceptional circumstances” process — which in turn triggers an additional discussion period with those groups but won’t necessarily lead to a change in the price adjustment.

The participating stakeholder groups include Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC) as well as the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers (CFIG), Dairy Processors of Canada, Retail Council of Canada, Restaurants Canada and Consumer Association of Canada.

With two out of three criteria met for invoking the exceptional circumstances mechanism — namely, an “unexpected event” in the view of the stakeholder making the request, and a spread of more than five percentage points between the change in iCOP and CPI — the CFIG has requested the process, the commission said in a statement Friday.

If the exceptional circumstances process hadn’t been triggered, the NPF result would have applied, and the commission would have moved on to hold consultations on the support price for butter.

Now, however, the commission said Friday its NPF result is suspended and the board will hold pricing consultations with stakeholder groups between Tuesday and next Monday (Oct. 23).

But the commission said it will still make a final milk pricing announcement by no later than Nov. 1, to take effect next Feb. 1.

‘In solidarity’

And while the NPF calculations may support a farmgate milk price adjustment of 1.77 per cent, DFC said in a separate statement Friday it will “recommend that this adjustment be delayed.”

“Dairy farmers and their families are also consumers and experience the high cost of food these days,” DFC president David Wiens said. “Recognizing the current level of food inflation and in solidarity with all Canadians, we have recommended the Canadian Dairy Commission delay its application of the price adjustment on milk until further notice.”

However, he added, the retail prices consumers pay for dairy are “ultimately determined by other players in the supply chain. Our hope is that our decision will result in other actors maintaining the price of dairy products at a time when food inflation hovers around nine per cent.”

The commission, in setting the 2023 iCOP, noted dairy farmers saw increases in most indexed key costs, including interest rates.

However, the commission added, those increases were offset by decreases in other costs, such as purchased feed; fuel and oil; and fertilizers and herbicides.

At the close of the cost indexation period in August, the commission said, “several indices seem to stabilize,” such as land and building repairs, and machinery and equipment repairs. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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David Wiens, who farms with his brother at Grunthal, Man., about 50 km southeast of Winnipeg, replaces Pierre Lampron, an organic dairy farmer in Quebec’s Mauricie region and DFC president since 2017.

Wiens, a director with Dairy Farmers of Manitoba since 1995 and its president since 2006, was named a director on DFC’s board in 2009 and became its vice-president in 2011.

At the time of his election as DFC president, Wiens was also chair of DFC’s proAction committee, the Canadian Dairy Research Council and the DFC committee reviewing and updating Canada’s code of practice for the care and handling of dairy cattle.

“Our industry is at a crossroads, we face numerous challenges, but there are also opportunities which we must seize,” Wiens said in a release Wednesday.

“Dairy farmers are the first link with milk production in bringing highly nutritious dairy products to consumers. Yet, we rely on our dairy processors as key partners in the supply chain. It is in the overall sector’s interest to adopt collaborative approaches to meet the expectations of Canadians.”

DFC’s board of directors for 2023 also includes Sarah Sache (B.C.), Wim Van De Brake (Alberta), Matthew Flaman (Saskatchewan), Stefan Singer (Manitoba), Gilbert Matheson (New Brunswick), Greg Archibald (Nova Scotia) and Steve Reeves (Prince Edward Island).

Ontario is represented on the DFC board by Vicky Morrison, Mark Hamel and Don Gordon, and Quebec by Daniel Gobeil, Peter Strebel and Marcel Blais. A director representing Newfoundland and Labrador was not named Wednesday.

Lampron, who’d been on the board of Producteurs de lait du Quebec since 2000, remains present at the national ag policy level, having been named in Feburary as second vice-president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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“I think that we’ve come to a very solid revised code,” David Wiens, DFC’s vice-president, said in an interview.

The National Farm Animal Care Council (NFACC) on Thursday released its revised Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Dairy Cattle, to take effect on April 1, 2024.

The code forms the backbone of DFC’s proAction quality assurance program, to which all dairy farms must adhere.

Key changes to the code involve a timeline to eliminate tie-stall housing for cows, a system in which the animals are tethered continuously or for long periods. Effective April 2027, cows may not be tethered continuously. New barns will be required to allow “daily, untethered freedom of movement and social interactions year-round,” the code says.

By 2031, calves will be required to be housed in groups or pairs by four weeks of age. If they’re housed outdoors or in hutches, they may only be tethered if they can move in and out of the hutch. They must also be able to have physical contact with another calf, unless they need to be separated for health and safety reasons.

“Both of these changes are supported by science in terms of promoting good overall animal welfare,” Wiens said.

Both changes garnered praise from Humane Canada, a federation of humane societies and societies for the prevention of cruelty to animals (SPCAs). Humane Canada is one of the founding members of the NFACC and sat on the committee that oversaw the code’s revision.

“Overall we feel positive about the improvements in the code,” said Kathy Duncan, director of national programs with Humane Canada.

Nearly two thirds of Canadian dairy farms use tie-stall housing, Duncan said, and the previous code of contact took no steps toward eliminating the practice. Though Humane Canada is disappointed in the length of the phase-out periods for the changes, she said they are steps in the right direction.

“There are a number of areas of improvement,” Duncan said.

She highlighted added requirements that are intended to address animal abuse and work to ensure low-stress handling.

“We’ve seen some pretty horrific video of different types of handling on-farm and in slaughter,” Duncan said.

There are also stronger requirements and recommendations for oversight of farm workers.

Allowed stocking density will also decrease to 1.1 cows per stall in a free stall system from 1.2 cows per stall, effective April 2027. As of April 2031, that will be reduced to one cow per stall.

Wiens said he already stocks below the allowed rate.

“We find that cows are actually more productive at a slightly lower stocking rate,” he said.

The 2023 code notes that with lower stocking rates, cows have more access to feed bunks and can spend more time lying down — particularly for less dominant cows.

The code doesn’t include requirements for emergency preparedness planning, which is a disappointment, said Duncan. She pointed to the 2021 floods in B.C., which inundated many farms, including dairy farms. Many animals died, and other were left stranded and in dire need of food and water, according to one CBC report from November 2021.

The code contains many recommendations for emergencies, including the suggestion to develop a plan for evacuating cattle. It references “comprehensive resources to support emergency planning” that are separate from the code.

The code attracted “overwhelming interest” from Canadians, Duncan said.

Nearly 6,000 individuals or groups responded during the public consultation for the code, NFACC documents show. Forty per cent identified as dairy producers, just over 31 per cent were concerned citizens or animal welfare advocates, and just over 17 per cent identified as consumers.

— Geralyn Wichers is a reporter for the Manitoba Co-operator.

CLARIFICATION, April 4, 2023: A previous version of this article stated the updated code would require the elimination of tie stalls as of April 2027. Specifically, the code calls for elimination of tie stall housing, meaning the continuous or lengthy tethering of dairy cows in their stalls. The article has been edited to further clarify.

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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.

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

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The Expert Working Group on Feed Supplementation, set up by Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC) and other industry players in February last year to review those claims, said as much Friday as it published its 84-page report reviewing the matter.

Thus, a “key recommendation” of the report is “the need for better and more consistent time series data both when it comes to the evolution of the fatty acid profile of milk and butter, and butter hardness off retail shelves,” the working group wrote.

The 13-member working group, which included reps from the Consumers’ Association of Canada, processors and farmer groups, “cannot conclude that any perceived increase in the hardness of butter be solely attributed to the use of palm-derived feed supplements,” group chair Daniel Lefebvre said Friday in a release.

“There is a variety of factors that influence the fatty acid profile of milk which is only one of the factors that can affect butter consistency. We have also concluded there are gaps in the body of knowledge that should be addressed, and we offered a series of recommendations to better understand issues related to the properties of butter while also ensuring that industry is better equipped to meet consumer expectations.”

DFC, for its part, said in a release Friday it “supports the conclusion of the report” and will fund further research to “address the remaining questions” the report lays out.

All that said, DFC’s recommendation to dairy farmers last February — that they “consider alternatives to palm supplements” in their cattle rations, pending the review’s outcome — still stands.

“In light of remaining unanswered questions, DFC’s recommendation that dairy farmers consider alternatives to palm byproducts supplements in feed rations remains,” a DFC spokesperson said via email late Friday.

Similarly, a request last February from les Producteurs de lait du Quebec (PLQ) — asking that Quebec producers stop using such products in their rations, and that food processors adjust their recipes accordingly — still stands, a PLQ spokesperson said separately Saturday.

The working group’s assignment came in the wake of what DFC last February described as “recent anecdotal reports regarding the hardness of butter.”

Specifically, complaints were appearing on social media from Canadian consumers alleging their recently-purchased butter wasn’t softening to a spreadable consistency at room temperature.

At that time, the working group said in its report, “consumer organizations in Canada received contacts from individuals expressing concerns about this issue; particularly as it related to the use of butter in baking. However, given other issues that were occurring at the time due to the pandemic, these contacts were not widespread.”

Butter samples

The working group, chaired by Lefebvre, the chief operations officer for Lactanet, said Friday it met seven times from March to December 2021 and “sought presentations and reports from several outside experts.”

On top of its literature review, the group also commissioned two “data collection efforts.” One was to assess, compile and analyze data on “the fatty acid composition of raw milk from across Canada.” The other involved collecting 40 samples of retail butter from across Canada and analyzing those samples’ fatty acid profile and “physical properties.”

The working group, in its report, noted there are about 400 different fatty acids in milk, so “when people first heard the term ‘palmitic acid,’ most people had limited background available to understand what it means in the broader scientific context.”

Palmitic acid, the group said, is “the predominant fatty acid in milk, regardless of what cows eat” and “is also the most common saturated fatty acid in nature. Cows produce palmitic acid naturally, along with hundreds of other fatty acids in their milk.”

While livestock feed ingredients also contain such fatty acids, the group said, “feeding cows palm-derived feed supplements is not the main factor contributing to palmitic acid in milk.”

Rather, the group said, most of the palmitic acid in milk comes from the cow’s consumption of “traditional” feed ingredients such as hay, silage, grass and cereal grains and the cow synthesizing it naturally in the udder.

Fatty acid composition of milk, the group said, is also influenced by “a variety of other factors” including — but not limited to — the season, stage of lactation and diet, which in turn is “influenced by geographic region.”

The group’s literature review showed cream handling, temperature of storage and churning are “key factors that may affect the rheological properties of final products” — that is, the melting points of butter or its firmness and perceived “spreadability.”

The group’s consultations with processors found “while there has been a significant shift in demand from the restaurant and hospitality industry to the retail sector” due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there nevertheless has been “no significant change in manufacturing processes and practices over the past year and a half.”

It’s true that palmitic acid concentration in butter is “positively correlated” with the percentage of solid fat in butter and its firmness at room temperature, the working group said, but its survey of retail butter samples found “many other” milk fatty acids are also tied, for better or worse, to the solid fat content and firmness in butter.

Further, the group said, “while the content of palmitic acid in retail butter varies across the country, this variation could not be attributed to one single factor such as feeding cows supplements that contain palmitic acid.”

The group also emphasized any feed-related increases in palmitic acid content in butter would be “modest and extremely unlikely to have human health implications.”

‘Knowledge gaps’

Ultimately, in its report’s summary, the group “observed there is no data to confirm that there has been a change in the consistency of butter over time.”

That same lack of data means it’s “not possible to test for a causal relationship, and therefore draw conclusions” on any link between use of palm byproduct supplements on Canadian dairy farms and the consistency of butter in recent years, the group said.

The working group’s report “sheds light into the knowledge gaps related to the consistency of butter and animal feed supplements containing palm byproducts,” DFC president Pierre Lampron said Friday in that group’s release.

Lefebvre, Lampron said, has been asked to “continue to work with the industry experts in an advisory capacity to help support the design of such future research.”

The Animal Nutrition Association of Canada, which represents feed processors, and the Dairy Processors Association of Canada said Friday they will both keep working with DFC and the industry to continue research into the matter. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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DFC and Toronto-based, TSX-traded Pizza Pizza — which as of March 31 included 622 Pizza Pizza and 103 Pizza 73 outlets across eight provinces — announced Thursday the company will showcase DFC’s Blue Cow in select Pizza Pizza marketing campaigns nationwide.

The Blue Cow logo rollout began in Ontario this spring and will spread across all Pizza Pizza and Pizza 73 locations throughout Canada later this year, DFC said.

Upgraded to its current form in 2016, the Blue Cow is DFC’s symbol certifying products as made with 100 per cent Canadian milk and milk ingredients.

In this case, DFC said Thursday, the Blue Cow “assures Pizza Pizza’s customers that the mozzarella cheese topping they know and love is made with 100 per cent Canadian milk.”

The logo has been displayed on product labels and in campaigns by processors such as Agropur, Lactalis, Gay Lea, Organic Meadow, Fairlife and Bothwell Cheese, as well as by fast food chains such as McDonald’s Canada in a soft-serve ice cream campaign last summer.

In all, DFC said, the logo has been used by over 500 licensees, including about “three dozen” restaurant chains, on about 8,600 products.

“DFC looks forward to partnering with Pizza Pizza as it expands across the country, further supporting our commitments behind the Blue Cow that have made it one of Canada’s most trusted brands,” DFC president Pierre Lampron said in a release.

The logo, he noted, is recognized by “no fewer than nine out of 10” Canadians.

“Customers know the Blue Cow and now they can support Canadian farmers by grabbing a slice of their favourite pizza,” Adrian Fuoco, vice-president of marketing for Pizza Pizza Ltd., said in the same release.

Pizza Pizza, he said, is “a homegrown success story, enriching the livelihoods of over 700 local franchisees, and the Blue Cow reaffirms our strong ties to hardworking Canadian farmers and small business owners.”

The chain in recent years has built up backstories for several of its products and ingredients, billing its chicken products as coming from birds raised without antibiotics and fed all-vegetable-grain diets, and pizza dough made with 100 per cent Canadian wheat. It also committed itself to source egg ingredients from “100 per cent cage-free sources” by 2025.

The chain has also launched new products such as plant-based protein toppings and crust options such as a cauliflower-based crust and an “Uncrust” for keto dieters.

‘Food preparation’

The Canadian chain’s cheese sourcing hasn’t always been Blue Cow-grade, however.

Eight years ago, it was a sore spot with DFC and Canada’s provincial milk marketing boards, when the chain was found to be importing pre-packaged pizza topping kits combining shredded mozzarella and sliced pepperoni from the U.S.

The pizza kits at that time were classified for tariff purposes as a “food preparation” and thus weren’t subject to the tariff rate quotas (TRQs) imposed on dairy imports under Canada’s supply-managed dairy marketing system.

The dairy organizations at the time criticized the chain’s actions as “a blatant example of circumvention of the government’s tariff system” on cheese imports.

DFC and the provincial boards in 2013 tried to challenge the Canada Border Services Agency’s (CBSA) classification of the pizza kits at the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (CITT), but were rejected for lack of standing.

Later that year, the federal government plugged that loophole by requiring that the cheaper U.S. mozzarella in such kits be classified under the tariff lines for fresh cheese, regardless of their packaging.

The Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association, a longtime critic of Canada’s dairy pricing framework, criticized the federal government at that time for having “suddenly shut down a pizza cheese import process that the courts have twice upheld.”

Deliveries up

In its year-end financials in early March, Pizza Pizza reported overall system sales of about $488.3 million for the year ending Dec. 31, down from $553.5 million in 2019.

Same-store sales growth was down 12.5 per cent in 2020 from 2019 on the pandemic-related loss of walk-in sales and “non-traditional” sales such as those from its kiosks at sports and entertainment venues.

However, the company noted an increase in delivery sales at its Pizza Pizza and Pizza 73 stores alike, which “partially offset this reduction.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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