- The Australian
- September 08, 2012
Dairy leaders are in discussions with the NSW government to ship fresh bottled milk to Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong within 14 hours of it being processed in Sydney.
The impetus for the flying milk push, which trials have shown can be achieved logistically and at affordable prices, is to show Coles and Woolworths their access to cheap, plentiful milk from long-suffering farmers should not be taken for granted.
The Asian export drive is being spearheaded by the new NSW dairy industry organisation, Dairy Connect, in an effort to increase milk prices as the 20-month-long, $1-a-litre, milk-discounting campaign by Australia's two major retailers affects the viability of dairy farmers.
Northern NSW dairy farmer Jane Burney, who became an industry champion after an open letter she wrote to Coles on the internet was backed by 72,000 Facebook followers, believes creating new markets for fresh milk away from the supermarkets is the only way forward for farmers.
"The problem is that while our only markets for fresh milk are local, the supermarkets have us in the palm of their hands and we haven't got any other options," Ms Burney said last night.
More bad news hit the industry this week, with NSW and Queensland suppliers told by major processor Lion to expect further price cuts of 12 per cent for farm-gate milk this year.
Japanese-owned Lion announced that the average fresh milk price paid to its NSW and Queensland farmers this year would fall from 47c a litre to 40.2c.
Off-contract or surplus Tier 2 milk prices will be slashed from 35c a litre to 15c.
Lion's director of milk buying Murray Jeffrey angered the local industry with his suggestion that some milk producers in NSW and Queensland should consider quitting.
However, Dairy Connect farmers' group president Adrian Drury said NSW and Queensland dairy farmers should not have to suffer any longer at the hands of the supermarkets and processors like Lion.
"We are telling the supermarkets that they mightn't always have easy access to fresh milk and that they take us for granted at their peril in their push to force milk prices down," he said.
Dairy Connect chief executive Mike Logan said a trial shipment of fresh milk flown to China two months ago had been on Shanghai supermarket shelves less than 24 hours after it was processed in Sydney.
He said this was less time than it took Coles to get the same bottled milk into its store less than a kilometre from the Sydney processing plant.
"And we can get it there at prices that are very affordable for wealthy and middle-class Chinese, who are very keen to buy fresh Australian milk," he said.
The only way forward for farmers is to abolish government intervention in industry, which is what has enabled the government to give Coles and Woolworths their duopoly. Monopoly doesn't exist in a free market.
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