Consumers in the U.S. pay twice for their dairy products: once at the checkout and again at tax time. This occurs because U.S. public tax dollars are paid to dairy farmers, both directly and indirectly through government subsidies. This does not occur in the Canadian dairy industry; Canadian dairy farmers receive their income from the marketplace.
In other countries where prices paid to farmers are de-regulated, consumers rarely benefit at the checkout. New Zealand is a good example. As a de-regulated dairy industry, New Zealand has some of the world’s lowest dairy production costs, and their milk pricing is based on world prices. Yet, in 2017, consumers paid more for a litre of milk (on average) than Canadian consumers.
