Speaker: Brian Cameron is the General Manager of Dairy Farmers of Nova Scotia. He has been GM for the past 16 years of the organizations's 18 year history. Brian was born in Montreal, went to the University of Guelph and worked in Alberta before coming to Nova Scotia. He and his wife have two children, a daughter in Ontario and a son in Alberta. He says they are the quintessential Canadian Family - everyone born and working in a different province.
Brian described the workings of the dairy industry with particular reference to the supply management system and issues around trade.
Dairy Farmers of Nova Scotia (DFNS) is a not-for-profit organization that represents the 200 dairy farmers in the province. It has the responsibility for administering the Supply Management system for dairy. Essentially they buy all the milk from the producers and sell to the processors.
Farmers have a production quota and DFNS tries to match the production with the consumption in the province. NS is part of the national supply managed system and is grouped with provinces Ontario and East into the P5. The share of the national pool of dairy production is 2.2%. As the national market expands (or shrinks) our farmers get 2.2% of that new market.
Brian explained that the supply management system is designed around a number of principals including:
- Production Discipline. Matching production to consumption to eliminate overproduction and guarantee supply
- Fair return to producers. Setting prices that are fair to producers taking into account production efficiencies.
- Border protection. Using border tariffs to manage supply of foreign products and protect supply and price.
He showed graphs of the change in the industry over the years. in 1970 for example there were over 2500 small and very small dairy farms in Nova Scotia. Now there are about 200 producing the same or more milk. NS has the largest herd size of any province in the P5. Quebec has the smallest, however, they still have a lot of farms.
Brian told the group how trade issues were the number one concern of the industry. The most recent round of international trade agreements will mean increase in dairy imports from 12% to 18% between 2017 and 2024. This means that any new growth in the domestic market during that time will be mostly taken up by imports. At the
same time, the industries exports are strictly limited, so there is not a lot of potential for that.
He ended by saying that while polls show that the average consumer is think favourably with the supply management system, it is always under attack and producers fear more erosion over time. They are promoting a
Buy Canadian program (the blue cow) in an attempt to keep the industries market share. Dairy is a $21B GDP component to the economy and is worth supporting.
After several excellent questions Brian was thanked by Joanna.
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