MG chair apologises
ANDREW MILLER
03 Jun, 2016 12:47 PM
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We certainly apologise for putting farmers in that position.
The panel at today's breakfast: Bega Cheese chair Barry Irvin, Australian Dairy Farmers president David Basham, Fonterra Oceania managing director Judith Swales, and Murray Goulburn chair Phil Tracy.
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Murray Goulburn head Phil Tracy has apologised for the company’s part in the current milk crisis.
Mr Tracy was one of four panellists at this year’s Dairy Australia Dairy Situation and Outlook breakfast, held in Melbourne.
He said the industry was facing a difficult cycle.
“We are very disappointed by our actions, and they have turned out, but we can only call it, how we see it,” Mr Tracy said.
“We certainly apologise for putting farmers in that position.”
Other panellists - Bega Cheese chairman Barry Irvin, Fonterra Australia managing director Judith Swales also talked about trust issues.
Ms Swales said trust took a long time to earn, but was quickly destroyed.
“We need to be giving much clearer signals to farmers, as to what is happening globally,” Ms Swales said.
“Ultimately that impacts on the price that can be paid locally.
“We have launched a global dairy outlook, for our farmers, which we will send out monthly, which will give us a synopsis of what is happening globally, which could, in time, impact on what is happening locally.”
Mr Irvin told the breakfast there was a long way to go to rebuild trust.
“I am impacted by this, the suspicion doesn’t stop at a particular industry, the damage to the industry goes across the industry," he said.
“Trust is built by actions, it’s not built by rhetoric.
“We are a very polite industry, the dairy industry, we don’t name people.”
He said if the issue was not addressed, it would keep happening.
“Murray Goulburn had the highest profit since the GFC and that doesn’t feel fair to me, that doesn’t feel fair and it doesn’t feel it will build trust, and it’s not addressed and it’s not talked about," he said.
“Why did we not drop?
"It was the wrong thing to do, Bega Cheese had to hold its price, because that’s the commitment we made, whether it's legal, or whether it's moral, I don’t actually mind.
"I say it’s a moral position, and I’ll hold, and I’ll build trust, over time, by my actions and my words, not by my rhetoric.”
Mr Tracy acknowledged there was anger, among farmers, but pragmatism around how to navigate out of the current cycle.
“We take our board responsibilities very seriously – we were experiencing the material underperformance in the bulk ingredients market, but a 27 per cent growth for the domestic market," he said.
“We ended up with just under $700 million in sales, in that sector.”
Mr Tracy said factors beyond processors control could move against the industry very quickly.
