The suggested retail price for two litres is $7.99, about double the price of conventional milk.
The Just Us! Coffee Roasters Co-op is a shareholder in East Coast Organic Milk, and has a seat on the board. Just Us! expects to use 30,000 litres of the organic milk at its cafes in the coming year, according to general manager Debra Moore.
Moore says that when discussions on setting up an organic milk production co-op began nearly a decade ago, "it seemed pretty wacky. But over the last 10 years there's much more of a ready market than there used to be."
But that market is still small, with organic milk accounting for about two per cent of fluid milk sales in the province.
Dairy farmer Willena van Zutphen, who co-owns Dellside Farm near Port Hood, Cape Breton, is one of the members of the co-op. Although the farm is now certified organic, most of its production is still being processed with conventional milk. That's because the market is not yet large enough for all of the farm's milk to be processed and sold as organic. But she is hopeful that will change.
"There's just not enough market for it yet, but we're hoping to grow that market. Right now the co-op is only making fluid milk: one per cent, two per cent and homogenized. Hopefully in the new year we'll be making blend cream and chocolate milk and yogurt."
Members of the co-op get a premium on their milk. van Zutphen says she has yet to receive a cheque, but believes the premium will be about 10 per cent. Since the farm converted to organic production, milk production has dropped (they've sold quota) and so has revenue.
On the other hand, she says, "our feed bills are lower, since we don't feed much grain, and our vet bills are lower. In the end, the way we figure it, we're making the same amount of money."
Source: FCC