Federal Government commitment to a Dairy Symposium and Digital Dairy Platform announced
The commitment by the Federal Minister for Agriculture David Littleproud to hold a dairy symposium after the upcoming Federal election is welcomed by eastAUSmilk.
This announcement followed on a meeting between the President of eastAUSmilk, Matt Trace, with the Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce at a recent dairy farmer meeting at Muswellbrook NSW in early April where Matt raised with the DPM the holding of a dairy symposium.
Minister Littleproud also met with dairy farmers at Singleton NSW on 20 April with eastAUSmilk Vice President Graham Forbes and during an interview on the NSW Country Hour later that day, discussed the importance of a dairy symposium. You may listen to the interview at ABC Country Hour
Barnaby Joyce convened the 1st dairy summit after the 2016 federal election which brought together dairy stakeholders to consider issues confronting the industry due to the collapse of Murray Goulburn and the then clawback of dairy payments to dairy farmers.
The time was right for a look back over the past years since the initial dairy symposium in August 2016 and to determine what has occurred since that time and find out what has worked and what needs further review.
In reference to the symposium, Matt indicated that the dairy industry needs to find further solutions to the issues that confront those players within the dairy value-chain, particularly given the market failure within the industry and which was highlighted in the ACCC's report into the dairy industry.
The development of the dairy mandatory code of conduct, which can trace its beginnings to the 2016 dairy symposium, was the beginning of the restoration of trust and transparency in the relationship between the dairy farmer and processor.
Further discussion needs to now occur around the relationship of the supermarket within the dairy value chain.
Co-CEO of eastAUSmilk, Shaughn Morgan, has indicated that the Code has a few more steps to enhance its ability to provide the trust and transparency required.
The dairy symposium provides a place for that to occur.
The Federal Minister for Agriculture has also announced today the development of a digital platform to assist dairy farmers being provided with up-to-date information regarding value, price and other relevant dairy data.
The development of this digital platform in conjunction with the Dairy Code and the Milk Value Portal are beginning to provide dairy farmers with a suite of dairy products that will assist them in addressing the many varied issues that they are confronting daily.
This will also lead to further discussion of supermarkets being subject to the Dairy Code given the apparent 'inadequacy' of the Food and Grocery Code to provide appropriate oversight of supermarkets and their relationships with fresh food suppliers.
With the announcement and commitment today by Minister Littleproud, eastAUSmilk looks forward to being a part of providing the solutions with the other dairy bodies to stop the decline of the number of Aussie dairy farms and in finding a way to rebuild the strength and resilience of dairy farmers generally.