Farmers welcome commitment to increasing farm gate prices

The National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) has welcomed today’s announcement by the Murray Goulburn Co-operative of a partnership with Coles that is set to increase farm gate returns for dairy farmers from July 2014.
NFF President Duncan Fraser said any move by the major retailers to improve farm gate prices for dairy farmers was a positive step forward for the sector.
“Today’s announcement is good news for dairy farmers. Murray Goulburn is the largest dairy farmer co-operative in Australia, and the direct deal between the more than 2,400 farmers who are suppliers and shareholders in this co-operative and Coles means higher farm gate prices for those farmers.
“Today’s news follows Woolworths’ announcement last month that they too would develop direct farmer relationships, which will be trialled with farmers in the Manning Valley. Woolworths has indicated that this trial is aimed at better outcomes for farmers as well as consumers and we urge them to remain focused on delivering this result.
“At the end of the day, what matters is that our dairy farmers get a fair go and that the farm gate price paid for our milk is sustainable,” Mr Fraser said.
Today’s announcement follows the call last month by the NFF and its members to introduce a mandatory code of conduct for the retailers in dealing with suppliers, in order to help address the issue of unsustainable milk pricing, among other supplier-retailer relationship issues.