A recent decision by the Canadian Dairy Commission (CDC) to create a new classification for mozzarella cheese might open the way to further loosen iron-clad tariffs against speciality cheese imports. The CDC decision creates a new class and price structure for mozzarella used by pizza makers. The idea is that this will see lower prices for restaurants and see the market for this cheese expand to the benefit of everyone including dairy producers — at least that’s the hope. There is more to the story of course.
The CDC decision is supported by the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association (CRFA). That’s important because this group has for many years been waging a holy war against dairy supply management (SM). Their interests were purely mercenary — lower cheese prices for their members and cited cheaper prices in the cheese market in the U.S. which wasn’t controlled by SM. The relentless CRFA lobby against SM over the years has become uncomfortable for the dairy industry, particularly as SM has come under scrutiny in connection to trade agreement discussions. Rumours of the feds giving up SM at the negotiating table continue to circulate and damaging allegations by SM foes like CRFA don’t help the dairy industry’s position.
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It would seem that political realities may have caused the Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC) to moderate its rigid SM position. What this decision seems to have done is caused the CFRA to pull back its vociferous anti-SM lobby and made the DFC look more reasonable, a political perception it surely needed.
The DFC should continue this type of approach by softening its high tariffs position on imports of speciality cheeses in general. It would serve them well with public opinion and in the media arena, and with politicians of every stripe that are not friends of SM. High tariffs are generally used to keep out imported products that can displace the same but more expensive domestically produced products. But that’s gone awry with cheese imports and it annoys the cheese-consuming public and urban media. The fact is speciality cheeses produced in specific regions in the world cannot be reproduced identically in Canada. Yes they can come very close, but the subtle nature of local yeasts and enzymes and their impact on cheese flavour and texture are very site specific.
Dairy producers would do well to derail the political and media onslaught against SM by taking a proactive approach to mitigating tariffs on speciality cheese imports. It would be one less hammer opponents have in attacking supply management. The mozzarella decision is a good start, but the process needs to continue. As the saying goes — better to have part of the cake than no cake at all.
