{"id":76968,"date":"2026-08-11T12:01:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T12:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/2026\/08\/11\/gay-lea-to-expand-toronto-dairy-plant-to-address-national-cottage-cheese-shortage\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T12:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T12:01:09","slug":"gay-lea-to-expand-toronto-dairy-plant-to-address-national-cottage-cheese-shortage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/2026\/08\/11\/gay-lea-to-expand-toronto-dairy-plant-to-address-national-cottage-cheese-shortage\/","title":{"rendered":"Gay Lea to expand Toronto dairy plant to address &#039;national cottage cheese shortage&#039;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<br \/><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Why autos, alcohol and dairy are behind Trump\u2019s new Canada tariffs\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hzgrNekhVpA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p> Gay Lea Foods Co-operative Ltd. announced Tuesday that it plans to expand its dairy manufacturing facility in Toronto in an effort to meet growing domestic demand for dairy products, particularly cottage cheese . <\/p>\n<p> The co-operative, a major Canadian dairy producer owned by about 1,200 dairy farmer members in Ontario and Manitoba, said it\u2019s investing over $200 million in the expansion to help address what it says is a \u201cnational cottage cheese shortage.\u201d <\/p>\n<p> Cottage cheese has grown in popularity over the past few years as people seek high-protein sources \u2013 a momentum that\u2019s been amplified by recipes posted on social media. The dairy product is now one of Canada\u2019s fastest-growing grocery categories. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cWe\u2019ve really seen in the last several years, consumers using it a lot for health and wellness, as it\u2019s extremely versatile,\u201d Gay Lea Foods chief executive Suzanna Dalrymple said in an interview. \u201c <span>So, given this increase in popularity, we\u2019re looking forward to being able to meet that demand with this expansion.\u201d<\/span> <\/p>\n<p> Cottage cheese sales have grown 16 per cent by volume and 22 per cent by value a year over the past three years, said Gay Lea, citing market tracking by Nielsen. It said nearly half of Canadian households now purchase the product, with consumption up 24 per cent in the past year alone. <\/p>\n<p> The expansion of the Clayson Road facility in Toronto will create 75 new jobs when it is completed in 2028. <\/p>\n<p> Gay Lea said about one in three purchases of cottage cheese in Canada is for its brand, Nordica, which is manufactured and sold exclusively within Canada. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cWe\u2019re Canadian-owned. We really want to make sure that we\u2019ve got strong food sovereignty in Canada and that we\u2019re feeding Canadians,\u201d said Dalrymple. <\/p>\n<ul class=\"related_links\">\n<li>Opinion: Canada&#8217;s dairy sector is built on what I warn every client against<\/li>\n<li>Why cutting food prices while reducing imports may be a challenge for Ottawa<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> The United States has said it will impose a new 50 per cent tariff on a range of Canadian goods, including dairy, starting next week, which could heavily affect the sector. <\/p>\n<p> Dalrymple said dairy, like many Canadian industries, is concerned about trade tensions with the U.S. <\/p>\n<p> \u201cWe\u2019d like to get back to the business of focusing on growing our country and looking after our businesses and our families,\u201d she said. \u201cSo really what we\u2019re doing in the meantime is focusing on what we can control, and what we can control is investing in Canada and ensuring we can build a thriving industry here, so that we can continue to feed Canadians and help make sure family farms are sustainable for generations.\u201d <\/p>\n<p> <em>\u2022 Email: dpaglinawan@postmedia.com<\/em> <\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Farmers take to the skies with newly approved drone technology\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0-mpxQO-wqU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\n<br \/>\n<br \/>Gay Lea to expand Toronto dairy plant to address &#039;national cottage cheese shortage&#039;<\/a><br \/>\n<br \/>2026-08-11 12:01:09<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gay Lea Foods Co-operative Ltd. announced Tuesday that it plans to expand its dairy manufacturing facility in Toronto in an effort to meet growing domestic demand for dairy products, particularly&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/76969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pantheregroup.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}