Minister for Agriculture, Drought and Emergency Management David Littleproud has criticised today's announcement by Woolworths in extending its 10c levy to dairy farmers for another 12 months as tokenistic gimmick.
"It is utterly disrespectful of Woolworths to try to capitalise on World Milk Day with this pitiful offering, duping consumers into thinking the dairy farmers are getting genuine help from the supermarket." Minister Littleproud said.
"All they are doing is creating a corporate feel-good fund to promote their own brand.
"The supermarkets aren't listening to me or dairy farmers when we are clearly saying they need to restore the value they stripped from the dairy industry with $1 a litre milk.
"Ultimately, farmers don't want charity or to have to rely on grants, they just want milk to be priced at what it's worth.
"The strong position put forward by the Australian Dairy Farmers to increase the retail price of milk and pass the increase back to dairy farmers via their processors is not being addressed by the supermarkets.
"Woolworths has said an extra 10c a litre is $30 million dollars. Woolworths need to stop hiding behind their fear of moving first and stump up.
"Stop holding back the extra $90 million in value from the Australian dairy supply chain and claiming to be dairy's saviour with $5 million dollars of grants that farmers need to grovel for.
"We just need fair prices for dairy farmers not tokenism."
Fast Facts:
- Australian Dairy Farmers say the retail price of milk needs to lift.
- The Australian dairy industry employs more than 42,000 people.
- The introduction of $1 a litre milk in 2011 stripped value from the dairy industry.
