The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that five years ago, Canadian dairy co-operative Agropur was in dire straits. The Globe's Kate Helmore writes that the 2,700-member dairy giant was overleveraged, shackled with unproductive assets and drowning in debt. Then the pandemic hit, which only made things worse. Five years ago, the company was carrying too many unproductive assets. These included a yogurt business, fluid milk transport activities and a packaging company. Today is much different. As part of the strategic plan, Agropur began selling non-core assets to focus on what the co-operative does best: dairy. Sales are strong and the co-operative is now focusing on growth. But to do this, the Quebec-based dairy giant needs to go beyond the Canadian market. Canada is a mature market and growth is constrained by a number of factors, not least the supply management system that sets a national price for milk and a national production quota. One of its major competitors, Saputo, has used a similar growth strategy. The Montreal-based dairy processor has a presence in Australia, Argentina, Britain and the United States, and it has made some hefty investments in the latter market in the past five years.