Price of dairy products expected to spike in 2022

WINNIPEG -

There may be some bad news on the horizon for cheese lovers. The cost of dairy products could be going up early next year and the price hikes may not end there.

The Canadian Dairy Commission has recommended a significant increase in the price of farm gate milk starting on February 1 of next year.

This means the cost of milk used to make dairy products for the retail and restaurant sectors will increase by an average of 8.4 per cent.

“The cost of feed, for example, for the cows – which is a very big part of our cost – has risen by over 27 per cent in the last two years,” said David Wiens, chair of Dairy Farmers of Manitoba.

When it comes to how high of an increase individual products could see, Wiens said it may not be as much as you think.

“For a 450 gram package of cheese, the increase would be 26 cents. So that kind of puts it into context,” Weins said.

Dairy isn’t the only product seeing an uptick in cost.

Drought conditions across Canada, the U.S, and even Russia have impacted durum wheat crops, which could affect other food staples such as pasta.

At least one Winnipeg business is feeling the effects.

“We’re seeing increases right from the pasta suppliers of about 20 to 25 per cent just on the raw product,” said Marco de Luca of De Luca’s South Landing.

“We’ll hopefully be able to offset some of these increases, at least for a few months and throughout the holiday season,” De Luca said.

De Luca said he is already seeing cost increases from producers to suppliers and even packaging.

Bill Campbell, president of Keystone Agricultural Producers, said costs are rising across the board.

“I think that we also need to be aware of the increased costs with regards to processing and making it a final product for consumers to utilize, so there’s just added and increased costs all along the food chain,” he said.

“Everything has just created this perfect storm for price increases, so unfortunately, consumers are going to be paying more at the till in the near future.”

According to the Canadian Dairy Commission, the new prices will become official only after they are approved by provincial authorities, which is likely to happen in early December.