Western Star butter, Perfect Italiano, Mainland and Bega cheese: the brands Australians have loved and eaten for decades are up for sale.
“Bega and Saputo are potentially going to have more headwinds around regulator approval because they’ve already got big market share,” said Rabobank senior dairy analyst Michael Harvey. “The Murray-Darling Basin Plan has removed about 400 million litres of milk out of Victoria, just because of buybacks and water reforms,” said Billing. “That’s impacting communities up there as well, it’s not just the dairy farms.”
Hampson says farmers are only one group of stakeholders among several that these corporations must juggle. “Consumers, retailers and food service have clearly all accepted imported dairy products freely interchanging with Australian cheeses and butter,” stated the federation.Fonterra did not make Oceania managing director Rene Dedoncker available for interview. In a statement, Dedoncker said he wanted to assure farmers that all existing supply contracts at the time of sale would be honoured in the event of any divestment.