Canada chooses to dump milk rather than lower prices

Milk dumping is a policy choice, not an accident

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In November 2025, Canada’s supply management system deliberately destroyed millions of litres of perfectly good milk in Ontario, even as grocery prices remained high and food banks reported record demand.

That destruction was not an accident or a processing failure. It was the predictable outcome of policy.

The figure comes from Milk Producer magazine, an industry publication read largely by dairy farmers themselves. Most Ontarians will never see it, and that lack of visibility matters.

The 4.9 per cent disposed of that month represents roughly 10.2 million litres of milk poured away. At retail prices, that is about $18 million in lost value. The butterfat alone was worth roughly $10 million. All of it was destroyed without public scrutiny at a time when food banks across the province were reporting record demand and dairy products remained among the most expensive staples in the grocery cart.

Even this figure likely understates the scale of the issue. Ontario is one of the very few provinces that reports milk disposal in any form. Most provinces provide no systematic disclosure at all. And even in Ontario, the language used is telling. The industry avoids words such as “dumping,” “discardment,” or “waste.” Instead, it refers to the practice as “skimming,” a technical euphemism that makes a deeply uncomfortable reality sound routine and inconsequential. The result, however, is the same.

When questioned, dairy boards often argue that milk disposal is inevitable. Demand fluctuates. Processing capacity is constrained. Surplus milk, they claim, cannot be used. Some level of loss is therefore presented as unavoidable. This explanation has been repeated for decades and has largely gone unchallenged.

Milk dumping is not an act of nature. It is the direct result of policy design. Canada’s dairy sector operates under supply management, a government-regulated system that controls production through quotas, restricts imports, and sets target prices for dairy products through national and provincial agreements.

Individual dairy farmers are required to produce within their assigned quota and are generally prohibited from selling surplus milk outside the system. When production exceeds quota or demand falls short, excess milk must be disposed of.

For dairy farmers, quota is often their most valuable asset, frequently worth millions of dollars. Unlike most other agricultural commodities, production cannot adjust gradually to short-term changes in demand. When the system overshoots, surplus supply has nowhere to go.

Ironically, this is where supply management should perform best. Unlike the United States, Canada exercises centralized control over dairy production. In practice, that control has normalized the destruction of edible food while consumer prices remain high.

Dumping millions of litres of milk while food prices stay elevated is not a technical necessity. It is a policy choice. That choice tightens supply and helps keep dairy prices artificially high, penalizing consumers at the grocery store while food banks struggle to meet demand.

This outcome is not unavoidable. There are realistic alternatives that could substantially reduce milk dumping without dismantling supply management. Limited raw milk sales for informed consumers, with clear risk disclosure, would create a modest outlet for surplus milk. More flexible quota-adjustment mechanisms could replace blunt monthly cuts that routinely miss actual demand. Expanded processing capacity for butter, cheese, and milk powder could absorb temporary surpluses. Temporary, non-subsidized export channels for dairy ingredients could be activated when excess emerges. Better real-time demand forecasting, using retail and food service data, could prevent overproduction before it occurs.

None of these measures requires abandoning supply management. They require modernizing it.

Canadians are often told that supply management exists to provide stability, fairness, and predictability for farmers and consumers alike. That social license erodes every time food is destroyed under government-sanctioned quotas while households struggle to afford basic groceries.

If Canada is serious about food affordability, sustainability, and food security, it must stop treating milk dumping as inevitable. It is a choice, and one that deserves far more public scrutiny than it has received.

Dr. Sylvain Charlebois is a Canadian professor and researcher in food distribution and policy. He is senior director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University and co-host of The Food Professor Podcast. He is frequently cited in the media for his insights on food prices, agricultural trends, and the global food supply chain.