CANADA.ORGANIC CHEESE A NON STARTER.
Just five months after it started, a P.E.I. dairy has put a halt to its production of organic cheddar cheese.
Summerside’s ADL has 30,000 kilograms of organic cheese sitting in its warehouse with no one interested in buying it.
"Consumers are trading down, and they’re trading down based on price," ADL director of finance Chad Mann told CBC News Friday.
"Anything that has a premium attached to it would be sitting on the shelf longer."
ADL is hoping to find a market for the organic cheddar, but said it may just have to be sold without the organic label at the regular price.
Three years ago ADL felt organic cheddar cheese would be an easy product to move, and had four dairy producers start down the road toward organic certification.
The change meant an investment for Ray Arsenault, a dairy farmer in St. Nicholas. He had to buy new equipment, even buy more land so he could grow all his own feed.
In return, he briefly earned a 20 per cent premium for his milk, but with the end of organic production that premium is no longer available. Arsenault said if ADL wants to be able to resume organic production in the future farmers like him need some kind of incentive to maintain their status.
If Arsenault goes back to conventional farming, it will take time to turn it back.
"If I start feeding my cattle conventional feed I’m a year away. And if I fertilize on my land, it’s three years away," said Arsenault.
Some organic dairy farmers in the Maritimes have talked about launching their own brand of milk but right now there’s not much demand for that either, he said.