Sudbury, Ont., milk processing plant to switch to plant-based alternatives

A dairy processing plant based in Sudbury, Ont., will be refurbished to produce plant-based alternatives instead.

Lactalis Canada announced its Sudbury plant will stop producing dairy products as of Sept. 30, and will then transition to a new product line.

"Lactalis Canada will continue to operate its refrigerated warehouse in Sudbury and will retain the majority of its workforce during the transition period and for its new production facility with anticipated additional employment opportunities with future growth," the company said in a news release.

Lactalis is known for dairy products like Black Diamond cheese and Astro yogurt, but it has also started to produce plant-based alternatives such as Sensational Soy, Lactantia margarine and a coconut-based yogurt alternative.

I think the consumer trend is less milk and the trends seem to have people moving to various types of plant-based products.- Derik McArthur, United Food and Commercial Workers Union

"While our core business is dairy, as an innovation leader and as demonstrated by our forthcoming expansion into plant-based, we are constantly following the consumer and continually seeking opportunities to innovate and respond to the market," said Lactalis Canada president and CEO Mark Taylor, in a news release.

Derik McArthur, director of Region 8 with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, told CBC News the 22 employees he represents at the plant took the news well.

"This is going to be a huge investment made in the Sudbury facility and a new product coming out of here," he said. "So that's great news."

McArthur said a few jobs could be lost due to redundancies in the short term, but the switch to plant-based alternatives could mean growth in the longer term.

"I think the consumer trend is less milk and the trends seem to have people moving to various types of plant-based products," he said.

McArthur added the company has not yet confirmed what specific plant-based products it will produce in Sudbury.

Sylvain Charlebois, director of Dalhousie University's agri-food analytics lab, said he was not surprised to hear about Lactalis Canada's transition in Sudbury.

Charlebois said milk consumption in Canada has been dropping for 30 years as people become more concerned about animal welfare, the impact of food production on the environment, and their health.

More recently, Charlebois said the price of milk has gone up by 25 per cent since January, but a lot of plant-based alternatives have gotten cheaper.

"We're seeing companies becoming protein companies, essentially," he said. 

"So looking at proteins very differently, hedging against animal proteins and looking at a much more fragmented protein market in Canada."

The Dairy Farmers of Canada dispute those numbers. They say the price of milk has increased about 10.9 per cent in Ontario since January. The Dairy Farmers of Canada draw their numbers from Statistics Canada.