Building Australia’s next premium food success story

Australia’s dairy processing industry is one of the nation’s great regional success stories.

Every day, dairy processors transform more than eight billion litres of fresh Australian milk into safe, nutritious and high-value food products and ingredients consumed by almost every Australian household and exported to markets around the world.

In doing so, the industry contributes about $19.6 billion across products and value chains, supports more than 88,000 jobs and underpins the economic resilience of hundreds of rural and regional communities.

Yet Australia’s dairy manufacturing sector is operating in an increasingly challenging competitive environment. Stagnant milk supply, rising energy, labour, transport and compliance costs, growing import competition and constrained investment are reducing Australia’s ability to capture the full value of one of its most important regional manufacturing industries.

The Joint Standing Committee on Trade and Investment Growth’s inquiry: Creating sustainable economic growth in rural and regional Australia provides an opportunity to shift Australia’s regional development agenda from simply producing more agricultural commodities to creating greater value through advanced manufacturing, innovation, branding, exports and tourism.

Our submission to the inquiry shows how dairy processing sits at the centre of this opportunity, connecting farmers with consumers, regional communities with global markets, and agricultural production with advanced food manufacturing. We made four recommendations, these being:

Recommendation 1: Strengthen Australia’s dairy manufacturing competitiveness through a Dairy Manufacturing Competitiveness and Investment Package that recognises dairy manufacturing as nationally significant regional manufacturing infrastructure and supports private investment through targeted tax incentives, accelerated depreciation, automation, digitalisation, workforce capability and implementation of the Dairy Productivity, Competitiveness and Value Creation Project.

Recommendation 2: Build Australian dairy into a globally recognised premium food and ingredient category through a coordinated National Australian Dairy Brand and Marketing Program that includes a Choose Australian Dairy campaign and an Australian Dairy Origins initiative.

Recommendation 3: Strengthen Australia’s dairy export competitiveness by prioritising dairy within Australia’s trade agenda, reducing export costs, improving export systems and delivering coordinated market development across Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

Recommendation 4: Use tourism and regional experiences to drive export demand and regional economic growth through an Australian Dairy Experience Program that connects manufacturing, tourism, trade and international market engagement.

More: Read ADPF’s submission.