Chocolate maker talks up local dairy farmers
TASMANIA’S hard-working dairy farmers, who provide the milk used to make Cadbury chocolate, have been honoured by the president of parent company Mondelez Australia.
Mondelez Australia, New Zealand and Japan president Darren O’Brien said more than 130 million litres of milk passed through the company’s Burnie plant – a tenth of Tasmania’s milk supply.
There are 48 farming businesses who produce that milk, used to make more than 60,000 tonnes of Cadbury dairy milk chocolate at the company’s Claremont factory, and more than 40,000 tonnes of Easter eggs, bars and bite-sized pieces at the Ringwood factory in Victoria.
“What those impressive numbers don’t tell you are the countless hours put into managing a dairy farm, battling floods, fires, droughts, rains – just about everything – to give us what I think is the world’s best milk,” Mr O’Brien said at the recent function in Burnie.
“On behalf of Mondelez, Cadbury and Tasmania – thank you.
“It’s not easy what you do and again, we owe a lot of our success story of being proudly Tasmanianmade to you.”
One of those farmers is Marcus Young, who milks 250 cows yearround at his property at Ridgley, near Burnie.
“I have been supplying Mondelez for three years and we have received a really good price this winter. It certainly makes the hard work worthwhile,” Mr Young said.
Premier Jeremy Rockliff said that Tasmania was at the heart of Cadbury’s history.
“As Australians celebrate a century of Cadbury, we want everyone to be aware of the success story that is Tasmanian dairy farmers. For decades now, generations of farmers have supplied directly to Cadbury, making us able to claim one of our most famous exports, as truly Tasmanian,” he said.
Mondelez is celebrating 100 years of Cadbury in Australia and Mr O’Brien said the past few years had been tough as the world dealt with a pandemic. But he said Cadbury remained optimistic for the future.
“We will continue to pay a fair price for your milk, support you on your sustainability initiatives, and offer certainty for the future generations of dairy,” he told farmers.