Murray Goulburn’s recent financial report contained no surprises, according to Victorian suppliers.
It was the same message farmers received at last year’s annual general meeting, Waaia’s Edan Cockerell said. Along with many suppliers, Mr Cockerell believed if the Saputo deal did not succeed soon, MG could go bust.
“If the Saputo deal falls through, MG will likely end up with the receivers and be split apart,” Mr Cockerell said.
“This would no doubt see little money returned to suppliers sending more farmers to the wall – further fragmenting and destabilizing Australian dairy.”
Woolsthorpe’s Joe McLaren, said he would be staying with MG “for now”.
“As a supplier to MG, we want the (Saputo) deal to go through, as quickly as possible,” Mr McLaren said.
He said at supplier meetings last year, the co-operative indicated it could be viable for “only 16-18 months”, if the sale did not take place.
And in the Western District, MG supplier Craig Dettling, Macarthur, agreed the news came as no surprise.
“If you go back and look at the last update, it’s all foreshadowed there,” Mr Dettling said.
“If anyone is saying it’s a big shock, they haven’t been paying attention to what’s being going on.”
He warned if a decision on the Saputo sale was not made soon, it could have a snowball effect with more milk leaving MG. Mr Dettling said it appeared the co-operative had stemmed the milk supply losses.