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Dairy farming is one of the largest agricultural sectors in Canada. Dairy has a significant presence in all of the provinces and is one of the top two agricultural commodities in seven out of ten provinces. In Canada in 2011, there were 985,300 dairy cows on 12,746 farms across the country, an average of 77 cows per farm. From 1971 to 2011, the number of dairy farms in Canada has dropped by 91 percent. Quebec and Ontario are the major dairy producing provinces with 49% and 32% of the farms, respectively.〔 Dairy farming is subject to the system of supply management. Competition, both domestic and international is severely limited, restricting supply and greatly increasing profits for dairy farmers while greatly increasing the price of dairy products for consumers. Indeed, incomes of dairy farmers are consistently higher than incomes of farmers in other agricultural sectors.〔 Due to supply management, the Canadian dairy industry is isolated from the global market, and the almost all the dairy produced in Canada is consumed in Canada, and almost all of Canadian dairy consumption is from Canadian farmers. ==Supply management== Dairy farming has been subject to the system of supply management since the 1970s. It restricts the supply of milk by limiting and controlling the amount produced domestically and starkly limiting imports with high tariffs. With a restricted supply, the prices increase, increasing profits for the farmers. Though this system allows the federal and provincial governments to avoid subsidizing the farmers directly, consumers instead subsidize dairy farmers in through artificially high prices paid for groceries. Most other agricultural sectors in Canada (grain, beef, pork, etc.) do not have similar controls, and for the most part compete fairly on the international market. To keep supply low and prices high, it has been made deliberately difficult to become a new dairy farmer in Canada. Because the dairy industry is so lucrative, the right to own a single dairy cow is worth $28,000 (this does not include the actual price or value of the cow itself), and an average farm has $2,000,000 worth of quota. For farmers wishing to enter the market and start a new farm, the price of the quota can be prohibitively expensive, and up to 75% of start-up costs. This leaves those farmers entering the industry with a heavy debt burden. Supply management isolates Canadian dairy from the international market. In order to keep prices high and farmers' profits high, purchasing milk from international farmers must be blocked. This was originally accomplished by a total ban on imports, but international trade rules forbade this. Instead there is a tiny import quota, around 8% of the cheese market or 1% of the yogurt market – the equivalent of around one teaspoon of yogurt per Canadian per year.〔 Past this amount, tariffs are exceptionally high, in the neighbourhood of 246% for cheese and over 300% for butter. These high tariffs render imported food unable to compete.〔〔 At the same time, because Canadian processors have to pay so much to buy milk, they are unable to compete internationally. Total dairy exports in Canada amount to only 5% of production.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Dairy farming in Canada」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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