[HorizonXP]

Best cheese I've had in Canada was in Quebec. It's dismal here in Ontario.

Best cheese I've had anywhere was Switzerland. And it was similarly priced to what we pay here for Black Diamond cheese, which is mass-produced but serviceable.

Good quality local cheese does exist, but you're spending upwards of $20-$30/kg. That makes it something you only buy on really special occasions. Given that in Europe you can buy cheese that tastes better but is a tenth of the cost, I have to question the prices in Canada. All things are likely not equal between both countries, but the protectionism can't be helping to drive down costs and is likely doing the opposite.

[unsquare]

Oh yeah, the good cheese is definitely not cheap. Luckily, i'm a cheddar fan and costco has a 3 and 5 year old brick for under $10.

Very interesting article about the subject that touches a lot of the facets of this market.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-commen...

"Until last May, it was importing cheaper U.S. milk-protein concentrates as ingredients, displacing domestic milk. It temporarily halted the imports, however, after regulators in Canada created a new class of lower-priced industrial milk destined specifically for cheese and yogurt production. The solution is a stop-gap measure, however, that cannot be sustained without permanent subsidies or raising prices on other dairy products."

Then, in relation to MPC's, here's a snippet from Wikipedia

"In the US dairy farmers are protected from international competitors with a range of measures, including tariffs on imports. MPCs however are not subject to a tariff rate quota, so most MPCs used are imported[citation needed]. “The United States imports of MPCs have doubled in the last five years, and between 2007 and 2008 MPC imports increased 66 percent.”[11] The majority of these imports come from New Zealand, totaling $250 million worth of MPC imported worldwide.[11] US dairy producer groups claim that foreign manufacturers using nonfat dry milk in the production of MPC are circumventing existing quotas on nonfat dry milk.[12][13] Further concern arises as MPCs are largely unregulated.[11]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_protein_concentrate

[bryanlarsen]

There's good cheese in Eastern Ontario, although that's probably part of the Quebec tradition.

I think that protectionism is helping to produce quality cheese in Canada. Sure, good cheese costs $20/kg, but since crappy cheese often costs $15/kg, the delta doesn't seem too bad. If it was $5 vs $10, it'd seem a lot worse.

Dairy quotas are currently worth about $44,000 a cow. That's even crazier than taxi medallions being worth $250,000. With such strong evidence of a harmful monopoly you'd think Canadians would be rioting in the street, but it seems most Canadians support keeping dairy quotas.

[wott]

> Good quality local cheese does exist, but you're spending upwards of $20-$30/kg. That makes it something you only buy on really special occasions. Given that in Europe you can buy cheese that tastes better but is a tenth of the cost, I have to question the prices in Canada.

You are quite deluded. Quality cheese in France costs around 18-25€/kg, say 20€/kg, that's $30/kg. Cheap one costs 8-12€/kg, that's still $12-$18/kg.