By Galen Simmons, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Stonetown Cheese will be upgrading its cheese-washing process this summer thanks to federal and provincial funding.
A Jan. 15 press release from Perth-Wellington MPP Matthew Rae announced two local businesses would receive funding from the Dairy Processors Modernization Initiative (DPMI), funded by the Ontario and federal governments. The DPMI supports dairy processors to help improve efficiency, capacity and food safety by helping them modernize milk processing. Stonetown Cheese, an award-winning artisan cheese producer in St. Marys, received $200,000.
“We are very thrilled and feel fortunate to be a recipient of the DPMI as it will provide considerable financial assistance with our project,” said Rachel Dundas, office manager at Stonetown Cheese.
Stonetown Cheese will use the funds to automate its cheese-washing process, which has been done by hand in the past. The upgrade will reduce the manual, strenuous work involved in washing cheese and will allow the company to fully use its aging rooms’ capacity. The upgrades will be in place in the summer of 2025.
“We feel these initiatives such as the DPMI are important to the dairy industry as it allows us to be able to make the upgrades needed to our facilities to ensure we remain competitive and continue to meet the growing demand for dairy products in Canada,” Dundas said. “These initiatives also allow producers to implement new and improved processes to ensure we continue to produce a high-quality product that our consumers are accustomed to.”
River’s Edge Goat Dairy of Arthur also received $1,312.87 as part of DPMI.
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