Riverina Fresh, in partnership with Deniliquin Central IGA, launched its products on Thursday, with local dairy farmers there to see the momentous event.
And as soon as shoppers were told the products were sourced from Deniliquin’s dairy farms, they immediately picked up these milks and cream and put them in their basket.
Deniliquin dairy farmers Catherine and Ian Simpson have been in the business for ‘‘40-odd years’’, and it is the first time they have seen their products on Deniliquin shelves.
‘‘It is nice to finally see our milk up on the shelf. You milk the cows and then walk into the store and see that your milk is here,’’ she said.
‘‘My husband Ian, my son Richard and myself run the dairy farm, and our granddaughter Shelby comes over to help, so it is a family-run business just 20 kilometres out of town.
‘‘So it is great to see our effort being made into products sold in Deniliquin, and we just hope people will support us by buying our milk.’’
Riverina Fresh area manager Shane Snowden said as a dairy manufacturer, they were doing everything they could to ‘‘keep sales going, keep having milk come from local farms and keep people employed in the Riverina region’’.
‘‘Our products are sourced from local farmers around Deniliquin and the Riverina region down through to Cobram,’’ he said.
‘‘It can be a bit confusing understanding what is local and what is not, so we have made tags to let customers know Riverina Fresh products are locally sourced.
‘‘It is important to support Australian owned local producers because it keeps the local economy going, and it is really important that we as a company support local farmers and producers.
‘‘We are facing challenging times, so the best thing we can do is to support local farmers.’’
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