Supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths have been accused of ‘tricking’ consumers with their introduction of a drought levy on milk for dairy farmers.
Mathew Trace, the vice president of the dairy farming organisation that pushed for the levy, accused the supermarkets of doing a con-job on the public by applying the levy to only a couple of lines of milk.
The supermarkets’ approach would deliver an average of between only half a cent and one cent a litre to farmers, rather than the 10 cents the Queensland Dairy Farmers Organisation had been campaigning for.
Mr Trace says farmers are devastated by the outcome.
Mr Trace today added to these concerns saying he feared the levy, as it has been imposed, could actually make things worse for dairy farmers by encouraging people currently buying branded milk, which provides a higher return to farmers, to instead buy the own-brand milk with the levy on it.
Queensland Drive invited representatives of both Coles and Woolworths onto the program today to respond to the issues raised by Mr Trace.
Neither accepted our offer.
Coles provided this statement:
“100 per cent of the money raised through the 30c price rise on 3L Own Brand milk will be available to dairy farmers dealing with the impact of drought across the country.
“Coles is also supporting Norco’s decision announced earlier this month to increase farmgate prices paid to dairy farmers by 5c per litre.
“With the generous help of our customers, we’ve already committed almost $12 million to drought relief, including $5 million from the Coles Nurture Fund, to assist drought-affected farmers.”
Woolworths referred us to their initial media release saying its levy was not intended to solve structural issues within the dairy industry, saying that was a matter for the government to resolve, following the release of an ACCC report on the issue.
Source: abc.net.au
