Blog Post

$1 milk no more at Woolworths$1 milk no more at Woolworths

Website Editor

The news that Woolworths has permanently ended the sale of $1 per litre milk has been welcomed by governments and peak farming bodies across the country, with additional money to flow directly back to farmers.

Woolworths today announced the immediate cease of $1 per litre milk sales, with the indefinite extension of the ‘drought levy’. Two and three litre varieties of Woolworths-branded milk will now be sold at $2.20 and $3.30 respectively.

“Today is a huge win for dairy farmers,” said NSW Farmers’ Dairy Committee Chair Erika Chesworth. “We and all dairy farmers have been fighting for this result since $1 a litre milk was introduced in 2011.

“Woolworths have shown real leadership with their decision to end the sale of $1 a litre milk. This is a lesson for every other retailer in the country. It will make a substantial and real difference to dairy farmers who supply Woolworths milk across Australia.”

In announcing the decision today, Woolworths Group CEO Brad Banducci acknowledged the impact of the drought on farmers and regional communities in eastern Australia and promised that every cent of the increase in price will go back to Australian dairy farmers.

“The Drought Relief Milk payment model has worked on the eastern seaboard and is the most effective way to guarantee price increases end up in the pockets of Australian dairy farmers,” said Banducci. “While we’re realistic this won’t solve broader structural issues, we hope it will help inject much needed confidence into the sector and the regional communities dairy farmers do so much to support."

Minister for Agriculture David Littleproud welcomed the news, calling on other supermarkets to follow suit and urging consumers to play a bigger role in influencing decisions.

“Coles and Aldi continue to sell milk at $1,” said Littleproud. “This drives down prices to farmers. Supermarkets can’t pretend selling milk cheap doesn’t hurt farmers and they’ve got to be called out on this rubbish.

“Consumers have the power here. If everybody who clicks ‘like’ on a Facebook video bought branded milk instead of cheap supermarket brand milk, or punished Coles and Aldi by going elsewhere, big changes would occur overnight.”



NEWS
16 Feb, 2024
HARDI Australia has long been at the forefront of technological development for Australian farmers, giving way to a game-changing solution to the perennial agricultural problem of weed control.
By Jessica Martyn 16 Feb, 2024
When it comes to building and maintaining a successful farming business in Australia, implementing the right solutions to deliver and preserve essential resources like fresh water is crucial – and in these ponds, White International is an authority more than 70 years strong.
16 Feb, 2024
After five decades of consistently setting new standards in forage harvesting technology, including perfect cut quality, ideal chop length, and efficient kernel processing, CLAAS has recently released a special edition JAGUAR 990 TERRA TRAC model at Agritechnica.
By By Jennifer McKee 16 Feb, 2024
In today's fast-paced world, embracing technology has become essential for industries to thrive, and the Australian agriculture industry is no exception.
04 Dec, 2023
As a Landcare group, one of our main interests is to increase ecological resilience in our local area. Many of our landscapes have been cleared of vegetation in previous decades, so we have the task of supporting landholders to plant trees and shrubs to replace those that are missing. The benefits of revegetation are manifold. They include providing habitat for a range of native animals; controlling erosion and salinity; increasing farm productivity through nutrient cycling and shade and shelter for stock; and drawing down carbon from the atmosphere. But as weather patterns become more variable and we experience more climatic extremes, we need to think about which plant species – and which plant genetics – are most appropriate in our revegetation efforts. We are forced to ask will our local plantings be able to survive our future climate? Up until recently, it has been common for people to preference locally sourced seed when re-planting. This has been based on the idea that such plants will be best adapted to local conditions. However, there is growing understanding among scientists and land managers that we need to shift our focus to plants that can persist as the climate changes. This involves looking at which plant species are most appropriate by focussing on species that have a wide distribution and grow in our area and also in hotter areas, and increasing the genetic diversity of our tubestock so they have the best potential to adapt over successive generations. Our Landcare group has been tackling this issue for the past several years, working with scientists and AdaptNSW to find the best way forward. There are several key steps involved: understanding our local future climate, analysing whether selected local species can survive in climates like the one projected for our area, and sourcing seed for those likely-to-survive species from a range of areas to increase the genetic diversity of our plantings. Planting the right species with good genetic diversity gives revegetation projects the best chance of survival into the future. It’s not just about making sure the individual tubestock will grow, but that future generations of those plants will be able to survive and thrive. Luckily there are some good resources available for farmers, land managers and groups interested in climate ready revegetation. The Royal Botanic Garden Sydney has launched the Restore and Renew Webtool ( https://www.restore-and-renew.org.au/ ), which is a wonderful way for people to incorporate both climate change and genetic information when sourcing seed or plants. The NSW Niche Finder is invaluable for those who want to dig further into climate variables and species distribution ( http://www.nswnichefinder.net/ ). For future climate information, the CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology have joined forces to provide a user-friendly online tool ( https://myclimateview.com.au/ ). And AdaptNSW also provides projected climate change information for different regions of the state ( https://www.climatechange.environment.nsw.gov.au/projections-map ). The Yass Area Network of Landcare Groups also has detailed information about our work on climate ready revegetation and relevant resources our website: https://yan.org.au/projects/climate-ready-revegetation-project As the climate changes, our revegetation efforts are more important than ever. And we need to make sure that they are ‘climate ready’ so that their benefits persist well into the future.
04 Dec, 2023
Some weeks, Amy Pascoe spends more time with mushrooms than humans. In this Q&A the Little Acre co-founder talks stereotypes, innovation, and the problem with “Grown in Australia” labels.
Show More
Share by: