Milk Co-op Cuts Old Ties

Illawarra Mercury

Friday January 4, 2008

By ALEX ARNOLD

ONE of the South Coast's longest agricultural relationships came to an end last month, with the Berry Rural Co-operative and Dairy Farmers severing ties.

The Berry Co-op's deputy chairman Paul Timbs said it had been supplying a portion of its milk to Dairy Farmers since 1911, and supplying all of its milk to Dairy Farmers from the late 1950s.

The co-op, whose nine farms produce a total of nine million litres of milk a year, will now supply milk to the Bega Cheese company on the Far South Coast and the Unicorn Cheese factory in Nowra.

The remaining milk will be used in the production of the co-op's own South Coast Dairy products.

Mr Timbs said the decision not to renew its contract with Dairy Farmers was a difficult one.

"We all gave it a lot of thought, but in the end it was a unanimous decision," Mr Timbs said.

"Dairy Farmers these days is a large commercial corporation, and Bega and Unicorn are more in line with where we want to position ourselves."

At Gerringong, the Gerringong Dairy Co-operative, which comprises 10 farms, has supplied its milk to Bega Cheese since 1989.

While the Gerringong Co-op's store closed its doors last September, it is still an active co-operative and is also a Bega Cheese shareholder.

Rather than transporting milk from Gerringong to Bega, Bega Cheese has an exchange agreement with National Foods in Sydney, which will also receive Berry milk.

Dairy Farmers controversially closed its milk processing plant at Bomaderry in 2005 and, shortly after, the Berry Co-op established its own South Coast Dairy line using excess milk.

This led to the unusual situation of having the Berry Co-op's products competing with those of Dairy Farmers, even though more than 90 per cent of its own milk was still supplied to Dairy Farmers.

Mr Timbs said South Coast Dairy milk was now supplied to shops and supermarkets from Warrawong to Merimbula.

The majority of dairy farmers in Jamberoo and the Shoalhaven still supply Dairy Farmers, which has declared its intention to demutualise in 2008.

© 2008 Illawarra Mercury

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