Restaurant owners seek dairy price rollback
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dec. 3, 2008
TORONTO - Fed up with skyrocketing dairy prices, restaurant owners across Canada are calling on the Canadian Dairy Commission (CDC) to roll back prices in 2009.
Under Canada's supply management system, dairy prices have risen so high that restaurant owners are being forced to use less cheese and other dairy products. The CDC is expected to announce the 2009 price of industrial milk, which is used to make these products, within days.
At a consultation meeting last week, the CDC heard several alarming trends from chain and independent restaurant operators:
- Dairy prices have jumped 57% in the last 14 years - nearly twice the rate of inflation.
- Pizzeria owners are forced to pay up to 30% more for their cheese than frozen pizza makers do.
- To control their costs, restaurant owners are using fewer dairy products and introducing menu items that use less or no cheese.
- Cheese accounts for about 40% of the cost of a fresh pizza.
- For every dollar spent at a restaurant, the owner makes an average of just 4 cents in pre-tax profit.
- The cost to produce industrial milk, used to make cheese and other dairy products, has increased by just 6 percent over in the last 14 years - far below the rate of dairy price increases.
"The CDC has turned their backs and a deaf ear on us," Diana Coutu of Diana's Gourmet Pizza in Winnipeg told the CDC commissioners. "Independent pizzeria owners across the country have thrown up their hands in defeat and actively looked for substitutions for 100% dairy cheeses."
Several restaurateurs made their case to the CDC via a video presentation.
Among the comments:
"I've probably eliminated 50% of my dairy products in the kitchen....If (cheese) was more reasonably priced I'd use a lot more of it. People love the product, but they'll only pay so much for it."
- Don Webster, Fireside Restaurant, Halifax
"The cheese (price) seems to have been on steroids."
- Jim Loukas, Tasty Food Pizza, Montreal
"The constant cheese and dairy price increases are affecting us across the board. It's affecting our whole menu and because of that we have to find ways of portioning and rationing the cheese."
- Jimmy Averos, Diamond Pizza & Grill, Toronto
"Everything else fluctuates. Today it's expensive, tomorrow it goes down. Happens with meats, happens with vegetables, happens with everything - except cheese."
- Archie Benekos, Manie's Pizzeria and Greek Cuisine, Calgary.
"Year-over-year price increases have resulted in Canada having some of the highest dairy prices in the world," said Ron Reaman, CRFA's Vice President, Federal. "Restaurant operators want to grow the market for Canada's high-quality dairy products, but they simply can't do it at current prices."
Note to editors:
Video B-roll package available on CNW:
http://cnw.pathfireondemand.com/viewpackage.action?packageid=123
Full text of Diana Coutu's remarks to the CDC:
http://www.crfa.ca/news/2008/the_cheese_stands_alone.asp
Restaurant owners speak out about high dairy prices:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bNavr4Elq0
- 30 -