Two Canadian dairy co-operatives are joining forces to strengthen dairy co-operative leadership in the industry.
Amalgamated Dairies Limited of Prince Edward Island and Gay Lea Foods Co-operative of Ontario have created the Co-operative Dairy Alliance.
Gay Lea CEO and President Michael Barrett says "Having the same principles, and reflect those principles, we thought it was very important to ensure that what we did is have an alternative voice when you're looking at having things change within the industry."
ADL President Garnet Schellen says the new relationship allows each co-operative to maintain it's independence while leveraging their combined strengths, assets and resources.
The CDA's mandate is to grow the market for Canadian milk and build on the current variety of value-added dairy products offered by the two co-operatives.
It's also supposed to help the two co-operatives work collectively by sharing process excellence and collaborating on things like market distribution and research and development.
ADL processes over 100 million litres of milk a year from 180 Prince Edward Island dairy farms.
Gay Lea's 12 hundred dairy farmer owners produce more than a third of Ontario's milk.
Gay Lea is also Ontario's largest dairy co-operative.
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Gay Lea President and CEO Michael Barrett says it's not a merger, but rather an attempt to create a strong voice for the co-operative movement in the dairy industry.
[audio mp3="http://blackburnnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/CDA-Barrett-1.mp3"][/audio]
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Barrett says they do expect to see some synergies between the two organisations through the Alliance.
[audio mp3="http://blackburnnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/CDA-Barrett-2.mp3"][/audio]
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Barrett on what the co-operative's members can expect to see from the Alliance.
[audio mp3="http://blackburnnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/CDA-Barrett-3.mp3"][/audio]
