Michael Perich manages the family 2,000-cow dairy, Leppington Pastoral, Australia’s second largest. The Perich family are majority shareholders of Freedom Foods, which makes gluten-free products. (Sarina Locke)
A deal joining two of Australia’s largest dairy farming families, the Moxeys at Gooloogong near Forbes and the Perichs at Bringelly near Sydney, has been finalised.
The acquisition sees Australia’s largest single-site dairy, Moxey Farms sold to the Australia Fresh Milk Holdings Consortium, which is partially owned by the Chinese.
Audio: Australian Milk Holdings Consortium outlines its milk production plans (ABC Rural)
The consortium has been in negotiations for a few months and consists of a four-way partnership between the Moxey and Perich families, China’s largest private company New Hope Dairy Holdings and ASX-listed food processing company Freedom Foods.
Consortium director Michael Perich says operations at the Gooloogong dairy will continue as normal in the short term while plans to almost double stock numbers are finalised.
“The main thing is to get the expansion of the dairy finalised and to start looking for greenfield dairy sites,” he said.
“We would like to milk more cows out there, but we are just waiting for approvals.
“Hopefully in the next 18 months to two years we should be able to look elsewhere to build future operations.”
The Moxey’s farm operation covers 2,700 hectares and includes 3,700 milking cows that produce 50 million litres of milk per year.
The historic partnership sees the Moxey family acquire a strategic stake in the Australian Fresh Milk Holdings Consortium, which now has access to assets and operations across every aspect of the dairy supply chain.
Its primary aim is to invest in Australian dairy farms to increase milk supply so value-added dairy products can eventually be exported to China.
But Mr Perich said that for now its main focus would be milk production.
“At the moment, the consortium is really just about milk production. There are no plans to do anything about fresh milk in the short term into China,” he said.
“It’s more about UHT and that really moves through to Freedom Foods to then manage that process.
“There is no formal staged process in terms of the China market.”
In early 2014, Moxey Farms initiated a review of its operations with the aim of finding a strategic partner to assist with the next stage of growth.
Last year, New Hope Dairy announced its intention to invest $500 million in Australian dairy farms over the next decade.
Source: ABC Rural
