Dairy industry: ‘No issue’ with $1 milk, says Wesfarmers chief Richard Goyder

WESFARMERS chief Richard Goyder has “no issue” with $1 a litre milk, saying Coles’ suppliers were subsequently paid more and money went back to farmers.

Cheap milk: Outgoing Wesfarmers chief Richard Goyder delivers his address to the National Press Club in Canberra. Picture: AAP

WESFARMERS chief Richard Goyder has “no issue” with $1 a litre milk, saying Coles’ suppliers were subsequently paid more and money went back to farmers.

The outgoing managing director yesterday also criticised the numerous inquiries into the price of milk, arguing what the dairy industry needed was better infrastructure and efficiency.

Mr Goyder will this month stand down after 13 years at the helm of Wesfarmers, the owner of Coles supermarkets.

Speaking at the National Press Club in Canberra yesterday, Mr Goyder said the cost of milk mattered to the ”people we’re servicing”.

“If you went outside now and asked people, ‘Would you buy $1 milk or $1.20 if 20 cents went back to the dairy farmers?’, 100 per cent of them will tell you, ‘No, I’ll buy it at $1.20’,” he said.

“I’ll tell you, when they go to the supermarket, they buy the $1 (milk).”

Mr Goyder, who grew up on a wheat and sheep farm in Western Australia, spearheaded the $19.3 billion acquisition of Coles in 2007 and was well aware of the farmer backlash to the supermarket giant’s “Down Down” and $1 milk campaigns.

“At the end of the day I don’t have an issue with what we did (on $1 milk) because ... subsequently we paid the processors who supply us with milk more,” Mr Goyder said.

“And we also brought in, in most states, farmers’ milk — we try to give that money back to farmers.”

He said he also “feel(s) okay” with the price because the Coles team, including managing director John Durkan, twice a year shopped with a family on a $152 grocery budget — as per the average according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics — in Melbourne or Sydney’s western suburbs.

“If the executives don’t come back with five litres of milk, they’ve failed,” he said.

“So the price of milk actually matters to the people we’re servicing, which are the millions of ordinary Australians.”

He noted there were currently several inquiries into the price of milk, including a Senate inquiry and Australian Competition and Consumer Commission inquiry.

“What the dairy industry of this country needs is world-class infrastructure to get its products to markets and it need to be a world-class efficient business,” he said.

“It doesn’t need a Senate inquiry to inquire into that.”