Why is cheese more expensive in Canada?

[Dinner]

The quotas are traded on the market, and it would be politically difficult to remove them.

Declare that the government will buy back the quotas at a set rate then simply eliminate the quotas. Problem solved.

[Dinner]

BTW, if you take away the cost of the quota from the final retail price, cheese is the same in the US and Canada.

So the product is identical but one costs 80% more? You guys are getting ****ed in the ass.

[Dinner]

It used to be called government cheese here, but the capitalists changed it and it sells well now.

I thought crappy Velveta was formerly called "government cheese" as it was developed in WW2 to make a cheese like substance out of formerly discarded dairy waste. Velveta was then part of everyone's ration book thus the association with the government and the idea that cheese from the government wasn't as good as the real thing.

You have some real cheese. Many US brands make 'cheese food products'.

I'll never forget reading the label on a can of Cheese Whiz and seeing that the maker described it as a "cheese like substance". It was so bad they couldn't even use the word "food" on the label!

[Fake Boris]

So the product is identical but one costs 80% more? You guys are getting ****ed in the ass.

It's not 80% on average, more like 30%.

Declare that the government will buy back the quotas at a set rate then simply eliminate the quotas. Problem solved.

The quotas are worth billions of dollars, that's the issue.

[Wezil]

Eventually consumers will be put ahead of producers.

Maybe even in my lifetime.

[The Mad Monk]

Before you know it, cheese smugglers will be building tunnels under borders patroled by Canadian drones, while corner dealers make fortunes selling baggies of Asiago "White".

Where will the madness of Canada's War On Cheese end???

[The Mad Monk]

Out of curiousity I checked to see what "American cheese" might be...

Wiki -

American cheese is a processed cheese. It is orange, yellow, or white in color and mild in flavor, with a medium-firm consistency, and melts easily. American cheese was originally only white, but is sometimes now modified to yellow. In the past, it was made from a blend of cheeses, most often Colby and Cheddar. Today’s American cheese is generally no longer made from blended cheeses, but instead is manufactured from a set of ingredients[1] such as milk, whey, milkfat, milk protein concentrate, whey protein concentrate, and salt. In the United States,[2] it may not be legally sold as "cheese", and must be labeled as "processed cheese", "cheese product", or similar—e.g., "cheese food". At times even the word "cheese" is missing in the name on the label, e.g. "American slices" or "American singles". In Canada, exactly the same product, often by the same manufacturer with the same label design, used to be sold as "Canadian cheese" or "Canadian slices". Today, most such cheese in Canada is vaguely labelled just "slices" or "singles". In the United Kingdom, packs are labelled as "singles",[3] although it is commonly called cheese slices.

I should have known.

You can still get real American cheese at deli counters. It is always white, and firm like the colby and cheddar its made from, and is best described as a "baby cheddar".

[snoopy369]

"American" cheese is a convenient way to add salt and oil to products that desperately need it, like hamburgers. The name "Cheese" is a misnomer.

Also, true American cheese, not to be confused with singles, is quite good. Wisconsin Cheddar

[notyoueither]

So the product is identical but one costs 80% more? You guys are getting ****ed in the ass.

Yes we are.

Now we have people agitating for an artificially low dollar so that unproductive factory workers can get jobs. So, tax the whole country for the sake of one sector that is concentrated in one region.

[snoopy369]

Seems to have worked pretty well for China. Although you have to also decrease wages and eliminate workplace safety laws for it to work properly...

[Uncle Sparky]

Seems to have worked pretty well for China. Although you have to also decrease wages and eliminate workplace safety laws for it to work properly...

This is why Harper wants China to buy more Canadian companies - good management practices.

[Dinner]

It's not 80% on average, more like 30%.



The quotas are worth billions of dollars, that's the issue.

He bought $200,000 worth of cheese in the US and could sell it for $365,000. 165/200 = 82.5% price difference. So, no, it isn't a 30% prices difference, it is an 82.5% price difference and you guys are getting ****ed in the ass.

[giblets]

Whomever he sold it to would have otherwise been paying even more for the cheese, so it could easily be a 100% price difference.

[giblets]

An Ottawa supermarket was selling two litres of milk yesterday for $2.99, while a roughly equivalent half-gallon at a Buffalo supermarket was $1.83 (all prices Cdn.)

Chicken breast was $8.23 a pound in Ottawa, $3.35 a pound in Buffalo. Parmesan in Buffalo ran from $6.10 a pound for domestic stuff to $15.29 for imports, while in Ottawa it ranged from $13.79 a pound for domestic to $22.42 per pound for imports. It’s not a scientific study, but it’s a sign.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/its-time-to-question-canadas-cheese-prices/article2231511/

Double prices for domestic parmesan.

[regexcellent]

Seems to have worked pretty well for China. Although you have to also decrease wages and eliminate workplace safety laws for it to work properly...

The reason it works for China is because China is interested in artificially increasing employment at the expense of actual wealth. It's okay of the Chinese people are poor as long as they're employed. People who are employed are less likely to be an insurrection risk. The Chinese Communist Party cares much more about staying in power than anything else, really.