Farm leaders raise concerns over Pure Dairy’s Australian made labelling

A mammoth Melbourne project has dairy farmers concerned about an influx of foreign cheese.

Dairy leaders are calling for Canberra to refresh Australian made labelling laws with a $100 million Melbourne plant set to repackage foreign cheese.

eastAUSmilk president Joe Bradley and Dairy Farmers Victoria president Mark Billing are concerned Pure Dairy’s Dandenong South processing site will enable the company to use the ‘Australian made’ label on its produce despite its cheese originating in New Zealand or the United States.

Set to open in April 2025, Pure Dairy executive chairman Adrian Josephson said dairy produce processed at the plant will be a mix of Australian and foreign produce.

Pure Dairy executive chairman Adrian Josephson at the new Dandenong South factory.

Mr Bradley said the Pure Dairy example should be a wake up call to Federal Agriculture Minister Julie Collins to tighten Australian made labelling.

“This is wrong on so many levels,” the Brisbane region farmer said.

“We can’t have foreign cheese and other dairy shipped in Australia then have on the package ‘Made in Australia’ then it saying ‘made with imported ingredients.’

“Where’s the truth in labelling? This is even worse than Woolworths using green-and-gold labelling for its New Zealand cheese. Aussie farmers are sick of being done over by the supermarkets and the big corporates.”

Mr Billing said the Pure Dairy project was concerning for the sector as it was not clear what percentage of the dairy processed through the site would be Australian made.

“My guess would be very little. And the concern is using the good name of Australian dairy to repackage imported produce,” the Colac region farmer said.

“One of the key issues here is air miles, or air kilometres. We need to highlight how imported dairy, rather than locally-sourced dairy, is not environmentally friendly.”

Larpent dairy farmer Mark Billing. Picture: Nicole Cleary

The office of the Federal Agriculture Minister has been contacted for comment.

When asked last month about what percentage of dairy produce is likely to be processed at the Dandenong site, Mr Josephson said it would be seasonally dependent.

“It varies every year, it’s always a tough one to answer,” he said. When Australia’s got lots of milk, we’re exporting a lot more Australian (produce). But when Australia doesn’t have a flush of milk, when we might not be making parmesan, there’s a need to find parmesan from somewhere else — it could be European it could be out of New Zealand,” he said.