 |
|
|
Issue 33 |
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
Copyright |
|
|
|
|
 |
|||
|
Aussie CEO: Rural areas could become “slums of our society”
However, the company with only 125 dairy farmer shareholders invested in new technology (the cornerstone of which was a $25 million U.S. processed cheese packaging plant), changed some of its operational practices, and focused more emphasis on marketing value-added dairy products. Now, half of the co-op’s production comes from non-Bega farmer milk, and exports now represent 30% of Bega revenue, with cheese products shipped to some 30 countries. The company now is the number one selling retail cheese brand in Australia across natural cheddar and processed cheddar categories. However, Van Ryn is worried about what effect deregulation will have on Australia’s dairy production sector. Now that the Australian government is no longer regulating the price of milk, the average consumer in Australia will save about $12 U.S. annually on milk. Meanwhile, the average dairy farmer will lose about $24,000 in income support per year. Van Ryn is concerned that the consequences of agricultural deregulation may contribute to rural unemployment, depressed economic prosperity, lower land values, and poorer social servicing including doctors and dentists “who refuse to set up outside of the major cities.” “What I think has been less considered, and less measured, is the effect on the future fabric and presentation of our agricultural and rural sector to future generations. The rural sector now has the potential to be the slums of our society,” he says. “We all know what the agricultural support policies have done for the rural sectors and general economies of the European communities, and when I compare how they look to where we are and where we are headed, I question as to who has it right.” |
|||
Maurice Van Ryn is proud of the rejuvenation of Bega Cheese, of which he is general manager. The
100-year-old cooperative is a medium-sized cheese manufacturer that a decade ago appeared to “be a goner,” with run-down assets, low production output, no exports, and a small number of farmers supplying milk.