Region’s farmers face ruin

AN elderly dairy farmer west of the Gold Coast says the price war for bottled milk got so bad he had to pay staff out of his own superannuation.

Rod Venz, 72, has spent most of his life managing a dairy farm just outside of Beaudesert.

But after years of struggling to break even, the former Pauls milk supplier said the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission needed to step in to properly regulate milk prices to stop more dairy farmers from falling over.

“I was drawing my super to pay wages,” said Mr Venz, who recently sold his farm.

“Before the cheap milk, we were averaging 62 cents a litre. Last month, we averaged 54 cents a litre and when your break-even point is 55, you just can’t keep doing that forever.”

But Mr Venz is not the Lone Ranger. Another dairy farmer in the Scenic Rim is expected to have sold his property by the end of the month following a long struggle to break even.

“The ACCC needs to look into what’s going on with the retailers,” Mr Venz said.

Queensland Dairyfarmers Organisation president Brian Tessmann said despite a relentless campaign to save more producers from going out of business, the struggle was worse than ever.

“Despite consumers rallying around farmers during last year’s dairy crisis by buying branded milk, the situation for Queensland dairy farmers remains the same, if not worse with some farmers now receiving less per litre than they were,” he said.

“What this demonstrates is a clear market manipulation and failure being perpetrated by the major retailers.”