Milking new industry's potential: it's delicious, nutritious and one of the fastest growing livestock industries in Ontario -- it's goat milk! (FedNor).

Since April 2001, a group of northeastern Ontario farmers have been exporting goat milk to one of the country's largest processing companies in southern Ontario. The Northeastern Ontario Goat Milk Producers group -- now comprised of 12 farms from the area -- was founded with the help of the Community Futures Development Corporation (CFDC) known as Economic Partners--Sudbury East/West Nipissing Inc. The Sturgeon Falls-based organization was instrumental in pioneering this dynamic and innovative industry in the North.

"Area stakeholders saw the development of a goat milk group as an opportunity to diversify the local agricultural sector and to get in on the ground floor of a rapidly expanding market," says John Candie, Manager of the CFDC.

Over six million litres of goat milk and other by-products are marketed every year in the province. FedNor funding for the goat milk producers group is helping to provide management, technical and human resources support needed to help each farm operation prosper.

Consumer interest in goat milk has been increasing in recent years. Goat milk has similar amounts of protein as cow milk, as well as far, iron, and vitamins C and D. It has more natural vitamin A, more vitamin B and 13 percent less lactose than cow milk. While the use of goat milk for nutritional reasons is sound, many consumers once worried about one important aspect -- taste. The fact is, goat milk and cow milk taste just about the same.

Deborah Warren Smith, president of the Goat Milk Producers group, says the opportunity to capitalize on this growing multi-million dollar industry was there, if area farmers worked as a team.

"We knew we wouldn't be successful if we didn't work side by side," she says from her farm in Powassan. "We've become a very close-knit group and things are going well."