Media Release

November 17, 2014

QDO welcomes good news for dairy in China FTA

THE Queensland Dairyfarmers Organisation (QDO) welcomes the Free Trade Agreement between
China and Australia announced today and has congratulated the Federal Government on securing a
positive deal for the dairy industry in its trade agreement.
QDO President Brian Tessmann said the announcement marked many years of work and negotiations
by successive governments and the dairy industry with China, with the goal of securing a deal that
would help Australia service the massive and growing market for a range of dairy products in China.
The dairy industry has been looking for a deal that put us on a comparable footing with New
Zealand, which has seen a massive growth in its industry over the last 10 years on the back of its
China FTA, Mr Tessmann said.
We congratulate the Prime Minister, the Federal Government, and especially Trade Minister Andrew
Robb in getting a positive deal for dairy farmers over the line with the biggest dairy market in the
world. We also congratulate the industrys national body, Australian Dairy Farmers, which has played
a key role in these negotiations, alongside other groups including the National Farmers Federation.
Their hard work has paid off.
Mr Tessmann said the FTA, as it was phased in, would be a huge benefit for the national industry, but
he added that the benefits were not as cut and dried for Queensland farmers, which currently supply
almost entirely fresh milk for the domestic market.
The Queensland industry has lost enormous processing capacity in the last 15 years following
deregulation, so we cant turn the tap on to export quickly. We have also lost a huge volume of our
milk producing capacity in recent years with the exit of farmers that accelerated with the supermarket
milk price war. In fact, Queensland still remains short of milk for supplying its own drinking milk
needs.
Therefore, it should be not expected that large amounts of Queensland milk would be destined for
China in the immediate term beyond the niche market for fresh milk, such as the fresh milk currently
being exported to China by Norco.
But it does mean that there is huge potential for investment for future development and growth, as we
have already seen in the last week with the announcement of the new infant formula export facility,
Hope Dairies, in the Mary Valley and Burnett region led by Gina Rinehart.
The China FTA, current fresh milk exports, and the Hope Dairies project put the domestic milk value
chain on notice that no longer can Queensland milk be taken for granted. The clock is ticking on
cheap $1 per litre milk. It is a clear signal that the world puts a very high value on our quality
Queensland milk and now we need the supermarkets to do the same.

Media Enquiries:

Brian Tessmann, QDO President, 0427 622 537

Adrian Peake, QDO CEO, 0408 989 102
Brad Pfeffer Media Officer 0417 626 420