In a time when it’s not unusual to see retailers impose limits on certain items, the dairy industry is being forced to dump milk.

The agriculture minister has been at odds with chain retailers and big box stores over the practice of limiting quantities on some items. The Retail Council of Canada says it sometimes has to resort to that for various reasons, such as to prevent hoarding.

Minister Gerry Byrne sees no reason to limit chicken, eggs or milk because the province is self-sufficient in those items. He dropped a bombshell today, telling VOCM News that dairy farmers were nearly reduced to tears last week with thousands of litres of spoiling milk on their hands.

He says when stores were limiting access to milk, 170,000 litres had to be dumped because not enough orders were being placed by the big box stores and national supermarket chains.