The Ontario Dairy Goat Cooperative (ODGC) has lost members in the past six months, but it is forging ahead with a joint venture with Netherlands-based Unica Global aimed at marketing goat’s milk powder around the world.
A newly-formed co-op that includes some former ODGC members from eastern Ontario, meanwhile, recently secured approvals to act as a goat’s milk broker in the province.
Why it matters: Ontario’s goat dairy sector saw considerable upheaval in mid-to-late 2017, as markets for goat’s milk — which had seen unprecedented growth — quickly fizzled. The drop in milk price resulted in the stockpiling of goat skim milk powder and rearranged the way goat milk is sold in the province.
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The new joint venture, called Goat Partners International (GPI), is based in Chicago. The company’s website lists ODGC goat farmers as exclusive suppliers for the newly-created “Green Goat” brand of powdered products.
The website describes GPI as “a partnership between two like-minded organizations” that “want(s) to become the undisputed leader in goat milk products, with a presence in every corner of the world.” Products offered are geared towards industrial and/or food processing applications, and include 50-pound or 25-kg bags of whole milk powder, skimmed milk powder, and whey protein concentrate.
Ontario is the leading goat-milk-producing jurisdiction in North America.
“People involved have known each other for several years,” said Jan van Marwijk Kooy, who told Farmtario he joined the company as CEO on Dec. 1, 2017. “Unica Global was looking for a significant and reliable source of quality goat milk. In 2017, they reached out to ODGC and were informed that ODGC has excess goat milk available that needed to be processed and marketed.”
The Chicago home base was chosen partly because that’s where van Marwijk Kooy resides, but also, he said, to take advantage of “an excellent, high-quality workforce that we plan to tap into when the company starts to grow.”
On April 1, GPI began segmenting milk from one ODGC producer who has attained “non-GMO” certification.
“We see good opportunities to market goat milk based products with the non-GMO certification,” van Marwijk Kooy said.
He added the company will seek partnerships with co-packers so it can introduce smaller package sizes aimed at single consumers.
“We have started selling our whole goat milk powder in small quantities in the U.S. and will be exporting significant quantities to several regions such as the Far East, Oceania and likely South America,” van Marwijk Kooy said. “GPI will also start offering consumer packages such as cans for… consumers in the U.S. and abroad.”
ODGC chair Gerard Van Bodegraven of Burgessville told Farmtario the co-op — which formed in 2002 with the goal of “market(ing) its members’ milk, meeting the co-op’s high quality standards, for the best achievable price” — saw several members depart over the past few months, and is no longer at the 140 level cited on the website. Van Bodegraven couldn’t provide an exact number of ODGC members; van Marwijk Kooy stated the number “fluctuates,” but is currently “over 100.”
A four-member board of directors — two from Unica Global; two from ODGC — governs the joint venture.
The ODGC chair referred all questions about GPI to van Marwijk Kooy. He stressed, however, that ODGC continues to hold its own inventory of goat’s milk powder, separate from the Green Goat products.
ODGC is listed on the website of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, along with Gay Lea Foods, as one of two brokers of goat’s milk in Ontario. A representative from Feihe International told Farmtario the Chinese company aims to make a deal with a broker or brokers to supply goat’s milk to the Kingston plant.
A third player has apparently also entered the picture in recent weeks. Goat dairy producer Jeff Leroux confirmed to Farmtario that Goat Milk Canada not only recently received its approval from the Ministry of Finance to operate as a co-operative in Ontario, but it also recently attained status as a goat’s milk broker in the province.
Leroux is a member of the fledgling co-op’s board of directors.
“It’s probably going to be longer and slower than some of us might want it to be,” he said of the process of getting into business marketing milk. He added, though, that Goat Milk Canada is open to discussing the entry of new members from beyond what is now a regional base in eastern Ontario.
Saputo is the other major buyer of goat milk in the province with its Woolwich Dairy.
