Currently, Dairy Australia is funded through the dairy service levy, which is deducted from payments made to farmers by milk processing companies, and funding from the Australian Government.
In 2019-20, dairy farmers paid $31.6 million to Dairy Australia, representing 56 per cent of funding. The government kicked in $21.8 million, 39 per cent of the body's funding.
In a statement, the Australian Dairy Products Federation said the discussions were part of a commitment to a thriving, profitable and sustainable dairy industry.
“We are working with Dairy Australia on a due diligence project to understand the value of their ‘whole of supply chain’ program to dairy processors. The outputs aim to guide the potential financial contribution from ADPF and/or dairy processors – and is part of a broader scope of work on industry organisational reform,” the statement said.
“This will build on ADPF/processors’ existing contributions to Dairy Australia that support marketing initiatives and data provision - for example provision of milk production and dairy sales data; providing insights to feed into Dairy Australia market analysis, policy and trade programs and marketing; as well as assisting Dairy Australia in terms of communications with farmers.”
In 2019-20, the rate of milk levies was 2.87 c/kg milk fat and 6.99 c/kg protein.
Based on national average milk composition, these combined levies were equivalent to approximately 4.73 c/kg milk solids.
Dairy Australia funding is distributed via a ‘triple bottom line’ approach, with 55 per cent of funding going towards economic goals, 27 per cent towards social goals and 18 per cent towards environmental goals.
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