AUSTRALIAN milk powerhouse Murray Goulburn has vowed to strengthen its grip on the dairy industry to keep the co-operative model alive.
After Murray Goulburn missed out on securing NSW-based Dairy Farmers, leaving it the only truly owned milk co-operative in Australia, it believes the dairy industry will rely on its presence even more.
At its annual general meeting in Melbourne last week, MG chairman Ian MacAulay said the co-operative did not hold any regrets after its joint bid with Parmalat to buy Dairy Farmers failed this year.
"Although the effort was not completely wasted, the result has been the potential loss of yet another co-operative to foreign investors, leaving Australian dairy farmers to rely more than ever on the success of the Murray Goulburn Co-operative to drive milk price and farmer returns," Mr MacAulay said.
"There has been clear reference to Murray Goulburn being used as the base for pricing by other companies, which shows the strength the co-op has on farmer returns for the industry.
"There's a lot of recognition of the value of co-ops among farmers as a model to protect their interests."
Mr MacAulay, who took home a salary of $154,147 for 2007-08, said MG would encourage younger suppliers to become more involved.
"The co-op needs to keep young people passionate to keep it going and we have a core group developing," he said. MG managing director Stephen O'Rourke, whose salary last financial year topped $1.6 million, said Murray Goulburn and Parmalat "played as hard as they could" to secure Dairy Farmers, but didn't have the "horsepower" to succeed.
"The decision was made for good reasons," Mr O'Rourke said. "We would have had to make big changes, which suppliers might not have liked."
Murray Goulburn shareholder and supplier Neil Black said the philosophy and message of co-operatives needed to be spread more. "The question needs to be asked through our membership whether we are co-operators first, second and third," Mr Black said.
"If we believe the Australian dairy industry should be owned and controlled by the farmers so the benefits go through to them, what can we do to see these aspirations and beliefs are converted into action to become more influential to persuade more dairy farmers to become Murray Goulburn suppliers?
"It's not only about control but retaining the benefit of the value-adding which happens down the marketing chain, otherwise we become suppliers of raw material at rock-bottom rates with others benefitting."
Mr MacAulay said the co-operative would seek new avenues for increased milk production and had made innovative changes to its capital raising.
"Our priority is looking after existing suppliers," he said.
