Dozens of dairy farmers blocked the entrance to the Parmalat factory in Saint-Jacques Street in Montreal since 4 o’clock this morning.
Huge bales prevent tankers from entering or leaving.
Farmers protest against the import of milk diafiltered US and require Ottawa to enforce the cheese standards.
SPVM officers are there, but have not yet intervened to remove protesters.
Milk from outside Canada has a heavy tariff imposed on it in order to protect the country’s domestic dairy industry.
Diafiltered milk, however, is not considered actual milk and therefore enters Canada tariff-free from the United States.
The farmers set up bales of hay at the entrance to the Parmalat plant on St-Jacques Street in NDG, blocking access to trucks.
Lost revenues
Milk producers hang a farmer in effigy to symbolize how the lack of regulations surrounding diafiltered milk is affecting the industry. (Simon-Marc Charron/Radio-Canada)
Marcel Groleau, president of Quebec’s main farmers’ union, said the domestic dairy industry is losing money because cheese companies are skirting the rules.
“About 8,500 families in Quebec live off of agriculture,” he said.
“For the average family, they are losing between $15,000 and 18,000 a year. That’s about 30 to 50 per cent of their annual revenues.”
