Arabic version: بيغا تسعى إلى زيادة إمدادات الحليب من أقصى شمال كوينزلاند

According to ABC News, Bega Group has asked dairy farmers on the Atherton Tablelands to lift deliveries to its Malanda factory by 20 to 30 per cent. The processor wants to increase local annual supply from about 30 million litres to between 35 million and 40 million litres, reducing its dependence on milk transported from Victoria.

Bega chief executive Pete Findlay said seasonal disruptions can require the company to bring in 1 million to 2 million litres of milk from Victoria each year to keep the Malanda factory operating. He said sourcing more milk locally would lower reliance on transport from the southern state, which is thousands of kilometres away. Mr Findlay said Bega had substantially increased prices paid to farmers over the past four years and introduced production incentives.

Eric Danzi, chief executive of dairy advocacy group eastAUSmilk, welcomed the request but said sustainable growth would require stronger pricing and more producers. He said a 20 per cent increase in production would probably need at least a 10-cents-a-litre price rise, and said reintroducing the 5-cents-a-litre diesel levy withdrawn a month or so earlier should be a starting point. He said the request partly aligned with eastAUSmilk’s dairy plan for Queensland.

Bega also announced plans for a new cold-chain storage site in Cairns, expected to be built next year. The facility would hold about 50 per cent more milk than the current Malanda site. Mr Findlay said the company had sometimes shipped milk from Far North Queensland to Brisbane after running out of room at Malanda. Farmer James Geraghty said more farmers would be needed to meet the target, while Tom O’Connor said clear price signals gave younger farmers confidence to grow the industry.