Business

Ontario goat cheese maker faces million-dollar weekly tariff hit

The Lindsay, Ont., company says the 50 percent tariffs are forcing it and its suppliers to absorb the cost.

By Owen Fitzgerald, Business Reporter
November 9, 2026

LINDSAY · A major Ontario goat cheese producer says U.S. tariffs imposed in September are costing it roughly $1 million a week, putting its future and the farms that supply it at risk. Mariposa Dairy, based in Lindsay, Ont., sends 80 percent of its product to the United States, where it provides private-label cheese for retailers like Costco and Trader Joe's. The 50 percent tariffs were announced on Sept. 8 and took effect on Sept. 15, giving the company just six days notice, said co-founder Bruce VandenBerg. The company says the cost is being shouldered by everyone from the farms to the producers to the distributors.

"Everybody's trying to take a little piece of the pain in order to try to make this work," said Mariposa Dairy CEO Mark Anderson. "So while Mariposa Dairy takes a big piece of the impact of the tariff, our distributors taking a piece, our suppliers are taking a piece. And that's how we're trying to make it work for the short term." The short term is now dragging into the long term, and while the company says it is not quite at a breaking point, it is getting close. Mariposa gets its milk from roughly 50,000 goats across Ontario supplied by about 200 farms.

"Most companies could just stop and cut their supply off," said VandenBerg. "But we have 200 dairy goat farms that are relying on us to take their milk." Anderson added that the goats milk every day and the milk needs to flow because it has nowhere else to go. So far, the company has kept its purchasing volumes the same, but if it has to reduce the amount of milk it buys, farms would be forced to slaughter portions of their herds. Farmer Gabe Benschop, who has about 800 goats, said if the trade policy is not resolved, there will be a lot of goats culled and firms going out of business or farmers having to cut back.

While Mariposa distributes its product across Canada, there is not enough domestic demand to absorb the amount of cheese it produces. Conversely, the United States does not produce enough goat milk to meet its own demand. "They probably need to import 30 to 35 per cent of their goat cheese in order to meet their demand," said Anderson. One of Mariposa's largest distributors, New Jersey-based food importer Gellert Global Group, is suing former president Donald Trump and the U.S. government over the tariffs. Gellert typically imports about US$80 million of Canadian cheese into the United States each year, and if the lawsuit is successful, the 50 percent tariffs would be void. Yadude Books reported in October that the lawsuit argues the president overstepped his authority by using a 1930s trade law.

VandenBerg said he is hopeful common sense will prevail in the first part of the new year. He noted the company expanded based on the 16-year Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement negotiated during Trump's first term, and they are now only in year six of that deal. However, the lawsuit is not set to be heard until January, and the company says it cannot sustain the status quo until then. "I mean, ideally, if they could negotiate a solution, it would be best," said Anderson. "Failing that, we're going to need some type of financial support, to make it through this."

With files from BNN Bloomberg