MILK, THE STAR OF QUEBEC'S AGRI-FOOD SCENE

Dairying has been and continues to be Quebec's leading agricultural industry. Today's dairy farm is a real business enterprise, using state-of-the-art technology.

In 2004, Quebec's 7,657 dairy farms produced nearly 3 billion litres of milk for revenues of nearly $1.9 billion, or 33% of Quebec's total farm receipts. Quebec's production represents 38% of Canada's total dairy production.

The value of farmland and assets has been increasing steadily in Quebec. The total value of land, buildings, livestock, farm machinery and equipment exceeds $7.7 billion. In the early 1980s, most dairy farms were operated by a single owner. Today, more and more farms are operated as partnerships. The partners are generally from the same family: parents and children, spouses, brothers or sisters. The number of dairy farms has therefore gradually declined while the size of farms has increased.

At the same time, processing and pasteurization plants have adopted rationalization policies and huge enterprises have come into being through mergers and consolidations. Three large companies process 80% of the milk produced in Quebec.

The range of dairy products made in Quebec is constantly increasing. For example, over 300 specialty cheese varieties are now made in Quebec. Another sign of the vitality of the dairy industry is the fact that exports exceed imports. Each Canadian drinks 90 litres of milk and consumes a quantity of dairy products equivalent to 175 litres of milk. By comparison, consumption has reached 170 litres of milk per capita in Findland and Iceland, the country with the largest number of milk drinkers, and less then 5 litres in China, the country with the fewest milk drinkers.

A study conducted in 2004 by Daniel-Mercier Gouin, Director of the Groupe de recherche en économie et politique agricoles (GREPA) and a professor in the Agri-Food Economics and Consumer Sciences Department at Université Laval demonstrates that Canada is one of the countries where government support to the dairy sector is lowest. In 2002, subsidies granted per ton of milk produced in Canada was twice as low as in the United States and more than three times lower than in the European Union. In fact, Canadian dairy farmers receive no income support subsidies and have access to only the minimum support generally offered all farmers like the tax refund program.

Milk, a mega production!
Some Figures