Warrnambool Cheese and Butter has come to the rescue of 40 South Australian dairy farmers and their 40 million litres of milk.
The company told dozens of suppliers at a meeting in Murray Bridge last night that it would take any milk that farmers had to offer.
Those farmers were left with nowhere to send their milk, after processor United Dairy Power (UDP) went into receivership this week.
About 80 people attended the meeting, including farmers, PIRSA representatives, the receiver and four milk processors.
South Australian Dairy Farmers Association President David Basham said he did not believe any supplier would be left struggling.
“Probably the saving grace is Warrnambool Cheese and Butter, which was prepared to take all the farmers that were prepared to go to them, straight away, so that meant that everyone’s been covered,” he said.
“There’s been a lot of goodwill shown by some processors, particularly Warrnambool Cheese and Butter and Parmalat, to take some supplies straight away, so I think any bad feelings have been outweighed by the good feelings.”
The shock announcement on Wednesday followed the sale of UDP’s main cheese brand, equipment and Melbourne processing site to competitor processors.
The receiver, PPB Advisory, confirmed about 100 staff would be made redundant unless UDP’s two processing plants at Murray Bridge and Jervois were sold within the week.
Mr Basham said it was a best case outcome for a worst case scenario.
“From what we learnt on Wednesday until now, this is the best outcome that I could have imagined we could have achieved, so it certainly was a bad situation but we seemed to have salvaged it as best we could,” he said.
“It was an interesting mood. People were still in a bit of shock, but they were there just to listen.
“There were very few questions from the floor. People just wanted to sit down and sign up with their new milk company.”
Source: ABC Australia
