Half of Queensland's milk now coming from interstate

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Queensland farm fresh milk is becoming harder to find on supermarket shelves. The reasons are being blamed on dairy farmers exiting the industry with half of the state's drinking milk is being trucked up from southern states.

Transcript

00:00 For Colston Lakes dairy farmer Robbie Rattle, his cows are like family, but he's saying

00:07 goodbye to them and the dairy industry.

00:11 This is a decision that I think for our whole family is, actually it's pretty soul destroying.

00:21 We've milked cows here for 117 years.

00:23 The family was bottling milk under its own brand, but couldn't secure a viable deal with

00:29 any processor.

00:30 The only processor that comes through here has closed the door on us and said that they're

00:35 not prepared to pick us up, even though they literally drive right past our gate and happily

00:39 drive to Victoria for milk.

00:43 Half of Queensland's drinking milk is now coming from interstate, making farm fresh

00:48 milk harder to find.

00:50 There is of course a lot of milk not far over the border in New South Wales, but there's

00:55 also a significant amount coming all the way up from Victoria.

00:59 In a regional area we can't get other milk that's coming from our area.

01:03 Milk prices paid to farmers have improved significantly in recent years, but now they're

01:08 facing other major hurdles.

01:11 We've had fertiliser, grain, electricity, wages and of course rising interest rates

01:16 as well now, so we've got a super difficult situation where we're just struggling to keep

01:21 up.

01:22 I think it's a real disgrace that we've got governments that have allowed the industry

01:26 to fall to the levels that it has, that we are now a net importer of dairy products in

01:31 Australia.

01:32 To me that's just disgusting.

01:34 The industry says while the cost of producing milk is going up, they're not able to pass

01:40 the increases on, with customers not able to afford any more for a cup of coffee.

01:47 For Robbie Raddle, it's a tough pill to swallow, giving up his life's work, but also looking

01:52 to greener pastures.

01:53 I'm going to get to know my kids again, see them get up on Christmas Day.

02:01 So as hard as it is, there's some silver linings there.

02:05 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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