Support on-hand for flood-affected dairy processors

In light of the disastrous weather events currently impacting southeast Queensland and northern NSW, the Australian Dairy Products Federation (ADPF) hopes for the safety of everyone affected.

ADPF is committed to supporting its members and have been working with them to understand the damages, and planning for recovery is already underway.

While it is still too early to assess the damage fully, we know there have been significant infrastructure damage and lost processing days, challenges collecting milk, as well as herd losses and milk dumping for dairy farmers.

Dairy processors, alongside the whole dairy supply chain, have already shown enormous resilience through recent years in the face of COVID-19, bushfires, and drought, and they now have another immense challenge to overcome.

They are a crucial part of the dairy supply chain, adding value to a highly nutritious, highly perishable product, and are key to ensuring supermarket shelves remain stocked with daily essentials through good and tough times.

We encourage both dairy farmers and processors to complete the NSW Department of Primary Industries and Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries natural disaster damage surveys, which will help scale the impact and determine what assistance is needed.

Our flood-affected processors now face a monumental clean-up and long-lasting impacts to their businesses, so it is critical there is continued coordinated emergency support from all levels of Government, and we welcome those moves already made.