The Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission has approved the implementation of a new milk ingredient class.
Dairy Farmers of Ontario hopes the Class 6 will be more price-competitive with imported ingredients.
Chair Ralph Dietrich says they're also hoping being price-competitive will encourage processors to invest in updated and expanded capacity for skim and dry milk products.
He points out the province's current processing infrastructure can't handle the amount of product farmers are putting into the system.
According to Dietrich, the newest drying plant is about 13 years old - while some are 40 to 50 years old.
"So a lot of them are accidents waiting to happen and, at that age, fixing up is not an option."
While processors have some concerns about the new milk ingredient proposal, the DFO is hoping both sides will see enough good in it to proceed because the positives could be so beneficial for the industry.
"At the end of the day, you know, we as producers and they as processors - hopefully we're going to see enough good in it that we can proceed and at the same time recognizing there are some parts of it we would rather not have but some times you have to, you know, put up with the negatives because the positives are very beneficial."
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DFO Chair Ralph Dietrich says they're trying to make Ontario ingredients price-competitive with imports and encourage processors to update some of the provincial infrastructure.
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Dietrich is hoping processors and producers will see it as a win-win situation.
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DFO believes the new ingredient class will make provincial products price-competitive with imports.
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