Key points:
Milk stocks on supermarket shelves on the Atherton Tablelands are running desperately low
The number of dairies in the region have fallen drastically since the industry was deregulated in 2000
Supply chain issues have also been blamed for the current milk shortage
The Atherton Tablelands, west of Cairns, was built on the back of the dairy industry.
In 2000, about 185 local milk producers supplied the local factory. Today, that number has dropped to about 45, with many squarely pointing the finger at the impacts from the deregulation of the dairy industry 23 years ago.
Local dairy farmer and former Dairy Farmers Australia director James Geraghty said milk was being trucked in from Brisbane, but demand had outstripped supply in several Far North Queensland towns, including Atherton, Malanda and Mareeba.
“Queensland is now about 250 million litres a year short of what we consume,” Mr Geraghty said.
“New South Wales is now producing less milk than it consumes, so our milk is being topped up from farms in Victoria and production has dropped off there due to the cooler weather.
“It’s been the perfect storm.”
Supply chain issues
Residents in the Atherton Tablelands have taken to social media to express their frustrations about the lack of the ‘white gold’.
Independent supermarket business manager Matt Bowles has apologised to his customers for the short supply and hoped it was short-lived.
He said the major supermarket chains often had their quotas filled before independent suppliers.
“We have had customers that have raised concerns about why we don’t have milk because we are a big dairy,” Mr Bowles said.
“The pressures the freight industry is facing has meant that milk isn’t being brought up like it normally would be.
“That coupled with public holidays has compounded the situation.”
Deregulation kills the industry
At the turn of the century, there were about 1,500 dairy farms in Queensland.
It was a time when Australia’s dairy industry was regulated by state governments to ensure a year-round supply of drinking milk for consumers.
Over the years, that number has steadily shrunk.
Mr Geraghty said the Atherton Tablelands was one of the few remaining places in regional Queensland where milk was still processed, but it had not always been the case.
“A lot of towns in Queensland had thriving little dairy industries in the past,” he said.
“Here on the Tablelands, we had a cheese factory when I was growing up and there was a milk factory in Ravenshoe.”
Bega Cheese bought the Malanda Milk Factory in 2020.
