Cheese: Why no choice? So expensive!

[August1991]

Trump is correct.

We Canadians cannot buy decent cheese. We have no choice.

Foreigners cannot sell us cheese. Our tariffs on dairy products are high.

[Black Dog]

10 hours ago, August1991 said:

Trump is correct.

We Canadians cannot buy decent cheese. We have no choice.

Foreigners cannot sell us cheese. Our tariffs on dairy products are high.

Aren't you from Quebec?

[herbie]

Doesn't shop much that's for sure. I can buy Irish, N Zealand, Norwegian cheese at Costco almost as cheap as noName domestic cheddar at Bloblaws and GougeOn.

And sure as hell isn't familiar w American cheese, the popular brands & cheeses are pitiful. You have to hunt down specialty makers and pay as much as you do here.
Like I dare you - find an American major brand cheese as good as Armstrong Old Cheddar or Balderson's 2yr old at Costco.

And BTW that gooey greasy slime on your pizza is usually a mix of US cheese mixed with their lame excuse for pepperoni to skirt around the import laws.

[Aristides]

If you think you could ever get decent cheese from the US you are dreaming. Their cheese is tasteless shit.

Tillamook from Oregon is the most popular US cheese on the west coast. It isn't terrible but their extra sharp cheddar is about the equivalent of Balderson or Armstrong medium.

Edited February 7 by Aristides

[August1991]

On 2/5/2025 at 10:51 AM, Black Dog said:

Aren't you from Quebec?

I am Canadian - North American.

And I can't buy good cheese. The selection is so small.

===

BD, when I travel to Europe, the first thing I do is go to an ordinary grocery store and buy cheese.

29 minutes ago, Aristides said:

If you think you could ever get decent cheese from the US you are dreaming. Their cheese is tasteless shit.

...

I tend to agree.

[herbie]

On 2/6/2025 at 5:44 PM, Aristides said:

Tillamook from Oregon is the most popular US cheese on the west coast.

About the only one I liked on the West Coast. And one of the best I ever has was Dragon's Breath from a cheese factory in Nova Scotia we toured. A runny blue cheese style.

My favourite is Provolone Auricchio (aka Italian wedding cheese) that rots the roof of your mouth right off. Surprised to find a deli in Prince George that stocks it, even more surprised that it was only 10c/100g more than GougeOn sold their no name cheddar for.

[CdnFox]

Cheese imports are limited for a few reasons but mostly our dairy and eggs are limited in order to protect our Industries against being overrun by Americans. The concern was that if we didn't our Industries would cease to exist because they couldn't be competitive on the scale of the Americans are and then the Americans would control whether or not we had certain foods. Problematic if a trade war ever broke out, which of course we're seeing now.

I don't know how true it is that our own producers couldn't compete locally against the Americans, I have questions about that. But the fact is the Americans do subsidize their market quite a bit so even with everything else being equal our farmers would be at a disadvantage without that subsidy

[Barquentine]

The U.S. government's dairy subsidies have led to a surplus of milk, which is then converted into cheeseThe government stores this cheese in converted limestone mines in Missouri.

1.4 billion lbs. 1.4 BILLION  LBS.!

They would love to flood our market with this crap.

[User]

3 hours ago, Barquentine said:

The U.S. government's dairy subsidies have led to a surplus of milk, which is then converted into cheeseThe government stores this cheese in converted limestone mines in Missouri.

1.4 billion lbs. 1.4 BILLION  LBS.!

They would love to flood our market with this crap.

This is so backwards.

Canada forces quotas to control prices, which drives up the cost of all dairy products. They have import quotas and pretty much outright block US from selling any dairy at all. 

What the US does is buy excess production in America at going market rates so the dairy industry doesn't completely collapse due to insanely cheap prices. 

Not even saying what America does is great, but it is certainly vastly better than what Canada is doing and that is why your prices are higher and why all the Canadians I know near the border purchase a ton of dairy products down here when they do along with picking up all their packages they have shipped to border communities... 

 

 

[CdnFox]

2 hours ago, User said:

This is so backwards.

Canada forces quotas to control prices, which drives up the cost of all dairy products. They have import quotas and pretty much outright block US from selling any dairy at all. 

What the US does is buy excess production in America at going market rates so the dairy industry doesn't completely collapse due to insanely cheap prices. 

Not even saying what America does is great, but it is certainly vastly better than what Canada is doing and that is why your prices are higher and why all the Canadians I know near the border purchase a ton of dairy products down here when they do along with picking up all their packages they have shipped to border communities... 

you just admitted that your own government has to subsidize the industry to prevent it from collapsing. That costs taxpayers money

Our government regulates supply to protect the producers which results in a slightly higher cost. That costs the taxpayer money.

In the end there's not much difference in that respect. The reason that we do it is to protect our supply. No offense but once in awhile you guys turn out to be bad neighbors as we are seeing right now and there are certain industries and things such as food that we want to be extremely careful is not in someone else's control. Eggs poultry and dairy are considered absolutely essential so those Industries are protected. Other Industries such as beef could compete on their own without any protection.

It's that simple. This debate has been going on in Canada since the early seventies. Of course there are some significant downsides because it does cause producers to become lazy and inefficient and not fight to keep their pricing affordable to a degree. But it also allows for certain quality control things which the American products don't have.

Tomato tamato  i guess   But either way it has been a sore point between America and Canada for 30 years now

[August1991]

On 2/24/2025 at 1:27 PM, CdnFox said:

....

Our government regulates supply to protect the producers which results in a slightly higher cost. That costs the taxpayer money.

In the end there's not much difference in that respect. The reason that we do it is to protect our supply. No offense but once in awhile you guys turn out to be bad neighbors as we are seeing right now and there are certain industries and things such as food that we want to be extremely careful is not in someone else's control. Eggs poultry and dairy are considered absolutely essential so those Industries are protected. Other Industries such as beef could compete on their own without any protection.

It's that simple.

-----

 

WTF?

Our government regulates? Federal or provincial?

I have no problem with foreigners identifying French Champagne or Vermont cheese, as long as it is identified.

======

Zillions of ordinary Canadians, mostly in the West, pay high prices for their mozzerala.

 

[CdnFox]

11 hours ago, August1991 said:

WTF?

Our government regulates? Federal or provincial?

 

Are you actually shitting me right now? You've never heard of supply management?

FFS dude we've fought entire elections over this, it was a big issue in Andrew Scheer's conservative leadership run, it's come up dozens of times with the us trade issues. 

Federally dairy, poultry and eggs are HIGHLY regulated as to who can produce, where they can sell, etc etc.  

And the farmers who hold the rights to it are a major political force, especially in quebec.  They're often called the "Milk mafia".  

Here, have a read:

Dairy and poultry supply management in Canada - Wikipedia

 

[Aristides]

On 2/24/2025 at 8:02 AM, User said:

This is so backwards.

Canada forces quotas to control prices, which drives up the cost of all dairy products. They have import quotas and pretty much outright block US from selling any dairy at all. 

What the US does is buy excess production in America at going market rates so the dairy industry doesn't completely collapse due to insanely cheap prices. 

Not even saying what America does is great, but it is certainly vastly better than what Canada is doing and that is why your prices are higher and why all the Canadians I know near the border purchase a ton of dairy products down here when they do along with picking up all their packages they have shipped to border communities... 

 

 

The Canadian system is user pay instead of taxpayer subsidies.

[herbie]

They are called Delis. The supermaret carries cheeses that sell by the ton. FFS until a few years ago you couldn't buy Provalone at a Supermarket, then they came up with a pale shitty imitation of single slices, only a few years ago a decent provalone. The only Greek one is feta, and some lame imitation of Saganaki that's more like mozza that's gone off.
The mass retailers have done to cheese what MsDonalds did to hamburger. Sells but no one really likes it.

Adn this American whining over Dairy is just that. It's not a huge market and the shit they bring in now doesn't sell, so what's the chance of more selling better? They did bring in that US milk, everyone knew as it wasn't even in litres, and the local stores dumped most as no one wanted it. It sure as hell won't sell more here thanks to Mr Trump's antics.

[August1991]

On 5/7/2025 at 11:58 AM, CdnFox said:

Are you actually shitting me right now? You've never heard of supply management?

....

 

Uh, I was being sarcastic.

[August1991]

On 5/7/2025 at 7:04 PM, Aristides said:

The Canadian system is user pay instead of taxpayer subsidies.

Uh, no.

The Canadian system is ordinary people across Canada pay zillions of dollars to a few guys in Quebec.

======

About 50% of Canada's milk is produced in Quebec.

While on a flight abroad, I chatted with a Quebec dairy farmer. (It's all about sperm, calfing, female cows. They can produce milk for about 8 years.)

[Aristides]

9 hours ago, August1991 said:

Uh, no.

The Canadian system is ordinary people across Canada pay zillions of dollars to a few guys in Quebec.

======

About 50% of Canada's milk is produced in Quebec.

While on a flight abroad, I chatted with a Quebec dairy farmer. (It's all about sperm, calfing, female cows. They can produce milk for about 8 years.)

And the other 50% is produced elsewhere, the Fraser Valley is covered with dairy farms. The principle behind supply management is to allow farmers to make a living without government subsidies. Its biggest problem has been the cost of quota making it difficult and expensive to get into the business or expand.

Yes, milk comes from female cows who have given birth, just like humans.

[herbie]

What few guys in Quebec are you talking about? Only Kraft and Saputo where you live?

FFS like was just pointed out we get Okanogan and Armstrong in the supermarkets as well as Ontario and Nova Scotian and every other country. Hell we grab a big block of Ontarian 2yr old Balderson cheddar every trip to Costco.

Edited 7 hours ago by herbie
Plus a slab of Norwegian Jarlsberg