Dairy Farmers of Canada request hold on milk price increase

Canadian Dairy Commission calculations called for a 1.77 per cent price adjustment

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

Canada’s national dairy organization is asking for the Canadian Dairy Commission (CDC) to delay implementing a price adjustment.

“Dairy farmers and their families are also consumers and experience the high cost of food these days. 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," said Dairy Farmers of Canada President David Wiens said in an Oct. 13 statement.

Calculations from the CDC’s annual cost of  production survey and national pricing formula recommended a 1.77 per cent price increase on the farmgate price of milk, which would take effect in February 2024.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers asked the CDC to invoke the Exceptional Circumstances process.

This means changes to the regular pricing process.

“As a result, the routing pricing process will be suspended pending consultations with stakeholders,” the CDC said in a statement.

The stakeholders include DFC, Restaurants Canada and the Dairy Processors Association of Canada.

The CDC’s decision will come by Nov. 1.

An increase at the farmgate could translate into higher prices for consumers.

The average retail price for four litres of milk in Canada in August 2022 was about $6.01. In August of this year the price sat at $6.40, Statistics Canada data shows.

These increases came after the farmgate price of milk increased by 8.4 per cent in February 2022 and another 2.5 per cent in September of that year.