Tasmanian dairy farmers caught up in Organic Dairy Farmers of Australia collapse

Organic milk suppliers in Tasmania could suffer huge financial losses after the country’s largest organic milk company was placed into voluntary administration.

Dairy farmer Gary Watson on his property at Lileah. PICTURE CHRIS KIDD

Tasmanian suppliers caught in up in the collapse of Organic Dairy Farmers of Australia could be left hundreds of thousands of dollars out of pocket.

It is understood that six Tasmanian organic dairy farmers who supplied the company are owned money by ODFA, which has been placed into voluntary administration.

The cooperative, which has a processing and bottling factory in Geelong, was Australia’s biggest organic dairy company and was supplied by about 40 farmer-owners in Victoria and Tasmania.

North west Tasmanian farmer Gary Watson is owed about $250,000, which he said he is unlikely to be paid.

Mr Watson said the collapse of ODFA is a huge blow after years of work converting the farm to organic and waiting for a processor to buy the milk.

“I’ve been certified for quite a while and had to struggle through getting paid conventional prices while we waited for a processor to come along who could take the organic milk,” he said.

“It’s been pretty hard and we were just getting on our feet this season after all that time this when this has happened.”

Mr Watson said luckily another milk processor has stepped up to take the rest of this season’s milk, but it will be at lower conventional prices.

Adding to the frustration is the fact that Mr Watson raised concerns about the ODFA’s milk pricing structure for the current season, when it was first released in July last year.

Despite numerous attempts to leave the cooperative since then, Mr Watson was unsuccessful in terminating his supply contract.

“I sent an email to the CEO on the 25th of July last year requesting that they terminate my contract,” he said.

“As soon as I saw the payment structure when it came out this season I knew it wasn’t good.”

Mr Watson said while the demand for organic milk is still very strong and there are other suppliers who will take the Tasmanian milk, the financial losses from the ODFA collapse will be a significant blow to all the producers involved.

“At this stage I think I’m probably just going to lease out the farm and the cows and move off farm,” he said.

“I think I’ve had enough.”

Originally published as Tasmanian dairy farmers caught up in Organic Dairy Farmers of Australia collapse