A Southern Riverina supermarket is encouraging local residents to buy milk produced by the areas dairies, by listing farmers, the processors they supply and their products.
Deniliquin IGA part owner Robert Hallum said signs have been put up in the supermarket, advising customers about the current milk crisis.
“It’s just a sign showing some of the local dairy farms around here and the products which are local - milk, long life milk, cream supplied by Parmalat and Murray-Goulburn, and our local area dairies,” Mr Hallum said.
“It’s to try and show some support for the farmers, to highlight the position they are in.”
Late last month Murray-Goulburn announced it would cut milk prices for suppliers by about 10 per cent, to be followed by Fonterra.
Dairy farmers have backed the call to spend more on branded milk, than heavily discounted products.
Mr Hallum said concern was growing, in the Deniliquin area, about the plight of dairy farmers.
“We are a locally owned supermarket, so we look after the local people – for example, we try and encourage sales of our local rice,” he said.
“We look after the local people.”
Devondale milk is processed at Kiewa, by Murray Goulburn, while Parmalat products are brought in from Bendigo.
Finlay dairy farmer Malcolm Holm said he believed another local producer had seen the idea trialled in Gippsland, so felt that it could also work in Deniliquin.
“It’s letting consumers know, there are a lot of brands out there and it’s just letting people know which farmers relate to which brands,” Mr Holm said.
Adding 20cents a litre, as Coles was going to do, may “cannibalise” the premium brands and was unlikely to give farmers any help.
“If consumers buy branded product, particularly off Australian companies like Murray Goulburn and Bega-Tatura, that money not only goes straight back to dairy farmers, the profits also stay in Australia.”
Farmers in the Southern Riverina were doing it tough, after difficult seasonal conditions pushed up the cost of feed and water.
“We are going to try and work our way through it but people are pretty disappointed at where it all ended.”
He said the next step would be to find out next year’s milk price.
“If we can have seasonal conditions going our way and feed costs and input costs like fertiliser come down, that all helps as well.”
