Hunter dairy farmers could be paid more for their milk if the three major supermarkets agree to a temporary 10-cent-a-litre levy.
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Lyne MP David Gillespie has called on Woolworths, Coles and Aldi to lift the price on all dairy products by 10 cents a litre for the next year and send the extra money back to the farm gate.
If the supermarkets refuse he will introduce a private members bill in federal parliament to try to put the levy in place. But there is no guarantee it will happen before the government goes into caretaker mode ahead of the election.
The short-term levy is designed to bring financial relief while widespread industry reforms are being finalised, Dr Gillespie said.
He will hold talks with the supermarkets, processors and dairy farmers to discuss the measure and hopes to have an outcome before the end of March.
"My electorate supplies a significant amount of milk to the New South Wales milk market and my dairy farmers need help if they are to remain viable now and into the future," he said.
“If we don’t have a supply framework that delivers certainty, then many farmers will continue to leave the industry and we won’t have a dairy industry.”
The rise cannot happen fast enough for Bandon Grove dairy farmers Matt and Emily Neilson who are battling along in a business that doesn't make a profit and trying to survive amid rising costs.
The drought has seen their grain price triple and fodder and fuel prices are also going up. Add a summer similar to the drought conditions they endured last year and life has been full of challenges.
They are earning 47 cents for every litre of milk they produce and another 10 cents would make a big difference.
"We're all trying to dig ourselves out of the hole, our costs keep going up and there's not much you can cut back on because you need to feed the cows enough so their production doesn't drop," Mrs Neilson said.
"Another 10 cents a litre would make a big difference to us, but in areas where they are still buying in everything that they are feeding it's probably not quite enough."
Woolworths created a Drought Relief Milk brand last year and added a 10 cent raise to its 2L and 3L bottles. Farmers have been paid based on the volume of milk they provided to milk processing company Parmalat.
The Neilson's haven't benefited from these payments because they don't supply to Parmalat. Instead they received a one off $6000 payment from the Coles drought relief fund which came from a 10 cent rise on the supermarkets 3L own brand milk between September and December.
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