James Neal of Oxley Island says dairy farmers 'are forced to live in poverty'

Price is a controversial issue as dairy farmers, supermarkets, milk processors and politicians debate the need for, and impact of $1 litre house brand milk.

A minimum of 10 cent to 15 cent a litre price increase is cited as being urgently needed by Oxley Island dairy farmers, James and Pat Neal, and the Manning River Times' poll sought to gauge local support for paying more for milk if the money went to dairy farmers.

The poll asked, 'What is the maximum milk price increase per litre you would be happy to pay to secure the future of the Australian dairy industry?'

It provided price options of 5 cents up to 50 cents, with more than 81 per cent of 222 respondents voting for a 50 cent increase, more than 15 per cent voting for a 20 cent increase, and around one per cent support for each of the other price increase options.

Local residents also acted to give voice to their views about milk pricing on the Manning River Times' Facebook page.

"It’s disgraceful the amount of money the farmers get. I’d be prepared to pay up to $1 extra for milk if I knew the farmer would get that," Relle Boyd said.

"It's a shame in the survey that there was only a maximum a 50 cent increase ... ," Betts Merchant-Hollis added. With Troy Urquhart Long suggesting, "... we need to pay at least 75 cents a litre to the farmers."

Carlie McIlveen criticised milk processors.

"The processors should have to pay the producers the extra, and sell to the suppliers for less, without any extra cost for the consumer. It’s just plain greed and pocket lining, absolutely disgusting behaviour from the processors. It’s the farmers and the end consumers that are getting ripped off here, the middle men get all the gains," Carlie said.

"The farmers need to sell the milk directly to the consumer instead of going through multi-million dollar corporations making the rich, richer," Danny Ord suggested.

"Maybe they need ​to open some stalls in the surrounding towns of Old Bar, Taree and Forster and that would open a few more jobs in the local area for people to deliver and run the store."

Aldi and Coles will not match the February 19 decision of Woolworths to remove "$1 per litre fresh milk by increasing the price on all two-litre and three-litre varieties of Woolworths branded fresh milk."

Money from the price hike is reportedly guaranteed to go to around 450 dairy farmers who supply Woolworths fresh branded milk nationally.

Coles continues to defend its decision, saying that "it knows many customers in Australia face cost of living pressures and doesn’t want them to be disadvantaged through price increases." Aldi asserts that in relation to pricing, "ensuring that we provide the lowest everyday prices to the Australian community is integral to our customer promise."

Oxley Island dairy farmer, James Neal, says "Coles and Aldi are morally and ethically bankrupt for not matching Woolworths, and lifting the price of house brand milk from $1 to $1.10 a litre", and contends that "creeping acquisitions and mergers have led Australia to having the most concentrated milk processing and supermarket sector in the world."

He says dairy farmers "are forced to live in poverty and get Centrelink payments to pay the dairy farm bills." 

"A solution is a sustainable price for our product. In fact, the last time consumers could buy milk in the shops for $1 a litre was 1992. No Australian worker would like to be paid the 1992 minimum hourly rate of $8 an hour, unfortunately many dairy farmers are getting a lot less than $8 and hour during this drought, if they are making anything at all. 

"The drop in wages growth in Australia to only 2.2 per cent for the past few years is not keeping pace with the rising cost of living, and families are struggling with declines in real disposable incomes, but this is still better than zero per cent increase in milk price over the past nine years for dairy farmers."

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