Dutch dairy leader Ad van Velde tours Australia, discusses dairy land prices

The president of Global Dairy Farmers says Australia and Holland have some common land issues, but that Australia may have more opportunities in the future.

Ad van Velde says the twin troubles of pasture property prices and altered urban opinions are shared challenges for Australian and Dutch dairy farmers.

The president of Global Dairy Farmers has owned and operated a family farm in the northern part of the Netherlands for more than four decades.

He visited NSW this week to take part in the Dairy Research Foundation 2023 Symposium and noted how younger farmers across the western world were struggling to break into the property market.

Mr van Velde said Dutch farmland sold at an average of €25,000 per hectare, the equivalent of $42,000 per hectare in Australian dollars.

“We have a big discussion (in the Netherlands) about nature and the use of farmland,” he said.

“It’s a discussion in New Zealand, it’s a discussion in Germany and Ireland as well.

“What it means is less land available for agriculture and that means higher prices (for food).

“There are the same challenges here in Australia. The cost of farmland is at a record high.”

Global Dairy Farmers president Ad Van Velde.

Mr van Velde started farming in 1979 and operates a 200-cow dairy farm as well as growing alfalfa, sugar beets and maize.

He founded the NoorderlandMilk processing cooperative in 2006 and became president of Global Dairy Farmers six years ago.

With an Australian-European Union free trade deal on ice, Mr van Velde said the eurozone would export less dairy into the 2030s.

“Europe will export less in the future,” he said. “The Netherlands doesn’t export much skim milk powder, just a little. We export cheese a lot, we export infant formula to China – all added high-value products. That may present more opportunities for Australia.”

A general election is set to be held in the Netherlands within a fortnight after Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte resigned over political gridlock.

Tensions over environmental concerns versus food production and cost-of-living pressures have dominated debate in Mr van Velde’s homeland.

“The Netherlands is extremely rich and (urban Dutch residents) have an opinion about everything,” he said.

“They have a big mouth about organic but the organic market in the Netherlands is about four per cent. It doesn’t grow.

“The organic dairy farmers in France have got out of the market, there’s no business, they’ve gone back to traditional (dairy farming).”

However, Mr van Velde said he didn’t participate in a series of tractor rallies that rolled into the Dutch capital earlier this year.

“I don’t have time (for protests). I don’t go with tractors to The Hague, to the government buildings,” he said.

“In my career, the dairy industry in the Netherlands grew. In France, it is far more protected. Farms still have only 60 or 70 cattle and there’s no new generation coming through.”