A new multi-billion dollar free trade agreement between Canada and the European Union means goods and services will flow more freely across the Atlantic.
The deal will result in nearly double the amount of high quality European cheeses being brought into Canada.
While that may be good news for cheese connoisseurs, it’s concerning for local producers like Frazer Hunter.
Hunter runs the only certified organic dairy farm in Nova Scotia. He has cut out a niche market making specialty cheddar cheeses near Antigonish, but now he says he’s bracing for change.
“We are going to have more competition because more varieties of cheese are going to be here and we’ve got to differentiate our cheese more and more,” says Hunter.
“It really affects the dairy farmers, the ones producing the milk nationally, as well as the small and medium cheese makers,” says Brian Cameron, the general manager of Dairy Farmers of Nova Scotia.
Cameron says the organization isn’t against trade deals, as long as they don’t harm Canadian producers.
In June, dairy farmers from across the country voiced their concerns at a rally outside Parliament in Ottawa, and the national organization is seeking compensation.
“It’s over 100 million dollars a year would be the loss, the annual loss, of the milk production that would go into the cheeses that are being imported, so we need that to be mitigated,” he says.
Meanwhile, Hunter says local cheesemakers have the benefit of making personal connections with their customers.
“One of the great things about buying local and buying local dairy products is you can see the farms, you can see the cows, you can see the people, those people put children in schools, and it’s all the circle of the economy that is so vitally important,” he says.
It could be months or even years before there’s a squeeze for shelf space, but cheese producers like Hunter say they will continue to inform consumers about the benefits of buying local dairy products.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Kelland Sundahl
