Ask Dairy Australia and they’ll tell you they focus on volume, not value. But every farmer wants to know the value of the produce they sell and the competition they face from imports. Dairying is not just about churning out more loss-making milk. It’s about trying to make a profit on what you sell locally and globally.
As dairy farmer Laurie Flanagan said, the industry is at a crossroads. But does anyone know which way to head?
And farmers say they’re sick to death of hearing DA and politicians say there’s a boom just around the corner.
Just last month Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce said agriculture was entering a “golden era” of prosperity and growth. But there are some sobering realities that Mr Joyce and others need to realise.
The rate of growth in our agricultural productivity has been declining for the past decade on the back of 20 years of government cutbacks to research and development funding. Free-trade agreements have not only opened up overseas markets, they’ve opened up Australia to a massive wave of imports. Foreign investors in Australian agribusinesses are importing more and paying less tax. Farmers’ ability to tap into the productivity gains of digital agriculture are hampered by poor broadband connectivity.
And the Federal Government has stripped more than a million megalitres from the irrigation communities of the Murray Darling Basin food bowl.
Farmers need to know the reality of what they face, so they can plan for the future. not be fed sanitised spin.
Source: WeeklyTimes
Link: http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/news/opinion/dairy-industry-outlook-australia-churn-out-reality-for-a-change/news-story/4d644cee24a6a52a6024c943b9214ae0