By Casey Neill
A NEW Gippsland milk provider has questioned how much farmers will actually benefit from a new Coles Famers’ Fund.
The supermarket chain announced that 40 cents from every two litre bottle of a new Farmers’ Fund milk range would be returned to farmers by grants from the Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF), starting in mid-October.
But Gippsland Jersey’s Steve Ronalds said that on his rough calculations, an average farm that received the maximum $20,000 grant was “probably going to get about 1 cent per litre equivalent”.
“Which is probably not really going to feed too many families and help massively, as much as it’s such a positive thing to do,” he said.
“One of the challenges for us is how much of that is actually going to help the farmers at the farm gate.
“Gippsland Jersey is a little bit different. We want to pay a fair price at the farm gate.
“The more Gippsland Jersey that we can sell, means the more farmers we can bring on board, is going to make big significant differences to families and their lives.
“We’re going to be at the farmer’s market at Warragul on Saturday week (17 September) launching our milk.”
The Gazette reported on 22 August that friends Steve Ronalds and Sallie Jones had joined forces to create the Gippsland Jersey brand.
The move followed dairy co-operative Murray Goulburn earlier this year retrospectively slashing how much it paid farmers for their milk, leaving many to pay back the difference to the company.
“What we’re doing is taking that control back into our own hands,” Sallie said.
Steve owns a jersey farm at Jindivick.
“We want to be a light in a dark time in the industry,” he said.
“A portion of the sales of each bottle will go into some sort of fund or foundation to help dairy farmers doing it tough.”
Keep an eye on the Gazette for an On The Land feature on Gippsland Jersey in coming weeks.
