U.S. subsidies lower dairy costs

In Canada, only people who purchase dairy products pay; in U.S. every taxpayer pays

A reply to “From management to markets” from AIMS. In response to an article written on April 24, 2017, by Jackson Doughart, I find there are so many “alternative facts” presented in it that I expected to see Donald Trump’s name at the end of the opinion . . . perhaps that is for whom Mr. Doughart and hence AIMS is working.

My question is whom funds AIMS and what do they have to gain from the dismantling of supply management?

Mr. Doughart states in one place about fairly competing for business (sales of dairy products in Canada) however two paragraphs later he states correctly that the U.S. farm subsidies distort the market.

The 20 to 30 cents per litre U.S. farm subsidy allows for lower consumer costs for U.S. dairy products and some of these products are coming into Canada.

Thus AIMS is saying we should scrap our Canadian supply management system so that these subsidized U.S. products can come into Canada and put our Canadian farmers out of business?

The real fact is that price comparisons of baskets of dairy products (not studies) over the last decade have shown that Canadian prices are 10-15 percent higher than the U.S . . . . not your alternate facts of “twice as great.”

Further in Canada, only the people that chose to purchase dairy products pay whereas in the U.S. every taxpayer pays even if they don’t buy dairy products.

AIMS calls itself an institute of market studies, however by this article, AIMS shows how very little it knows about the world dairy markets . . . or is AIMS dealing with alternative facts again?

Australia has lost over half of its dairy farmers and is now exporting 15 per cent less dairy products than they did before deregulation.

New Zealand traded its government control system for a super co-op (Fonterra) which purchases 93 per cent of the milk in N.Z. and farmers need to purchase shares to match their production (kind of sounds like quota system doesn’t it?)

The fact is that dairy is very unique in that 92 per cent of dairy products are consumed in the country that they are produced in, thus the export market is only eight percent.

This export market is dominated by three suppliers — the highly subsidized U.S., the equally highly subsidized EU with their CAP program, and Oceania, that has no government subsidies but has a great climate advantage (no cold winter and ample rainfall, thus low costs).

This export market has huge price fluctuations with returns most of the time being well below cash costs even for the New Zealand farmers.

So until the U.S. and the EU end all their subsidy programs and climate change ends winter in Canada we need to maintain our supply management system that provides sustainability to farmers so that they can continue to offer Canadians a consistent supply of great Canadian dairy products at reasonable prices.

I am a Canadian dairy farmer and I am producing milk for Canadians using Canadian standards for quality, animal care and environment in a Canadian social acceptable manner and I thank Canadians for buying my products and I want to continue to offer them that opportunity. Ron Maynard of Tyne Valley is secretary, Summerside district, Dairy Farmers of P.E.I.