Dairy co-op launches Nordic organic milk

What some might have considered a handicap, the dairy co-operative Nutrinor is using as an asset.

The grouping of 15 organic farms in Quebec’s Saguenay-Lac Saint Jean region is launching what they’re calling a new kind of milk – certified Nordic organic.

Four products under the brand name Nurtinor will hit shelves at Metro and Sobeys in Quebec and Adonis in Quebec and Ontario. These include milk, chocolate milk and 10 and 35 per cent creams.

Milk will be marketed in one and two litre containers and available skimmed or no fat, one, two or 3.8 per cent. The dairy co-op is projecting sales in the first year of 1.5 million litres.

“More than ever, consumers are looking for products presenting unimpeachable natural characteristics,” said Nutrinor general manager Yves Girard. “Our Nordic milk is as close as can be to the best nature has to offer.”

Nutrinor is selling the region’s rigorous climate, its isolation, distance from large populations and its 65-year history as a co-op as positives that ensure an unsullied, organic, natural product.

“We live in a region where we can raise animals in the best conditions,” said Girard, “far from other agricultural activities and protected from more urbanized Quebec by a national park.”

The Nordic label is hoping to capitalize on the region by marketing it as a “value added” quality that denotes freshness and purity and limited use of antibiotics. The packaging will carry Ecocert and AgroBoreal certification.

Nutrinor is a coop with 965 members and 425 employees.