Today, the Honourable Lawrence MacAulay, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, announced the launch of the new Dairy Innovation and Investment Fund. With an investment of up to $333 million over the next 10 years, the Fund will help the Canadian dairy sector increase its competitiveness and adapt to new market realities. The Fund is part of the Government of Canada’s commitment to support supply-managed sectors for the impacts of the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).

Like most dairy-producing countries, Canada is facing a growing surplus of solids non-fat (SNF), the remaining component once cow’s milk is processed and the fat is removed for use in products like butter and cream. Limited processing capacity for SNF results in lost opportunities for dairy processors and farmers.

Through the Dairy Innovation and Investment Fund, Canadian dairy processors will have access to support for medium to large-scale projects that will help the sector better manage the surplus of SNF in Canada. The Fund will support activities that help modernize, replace and/or increase processing capacity for SNF and minimize skim milk that is not marketed.

The Government is also exploring how the Supply Management Processing Investment Fund can support small-scale projects to address SNF issues within the objective of the program, by focusing on competitiveness and productivity.

With today’s announcement, all compensation programming to producers and processors for lost market share under recent international trade agreements has been launched. The Government of Canada will continue to preserve, protect and defend Canada’s supply management system and is committed to not making any additional market access concessions for supply-managed products in future trade agreements.

(Government of Canada news release)