VFF membership drops, 2019 financial results find

The Victorian Farmers Federation has “concerns” over ensuring farmers continue to be represented after membership drops.

Tough times: Dropping membership was a concern for the board, both in terms of making sure they were representing farmers, but also for the financial health of organisation, VFF finance committee chair Andrew Dix said.

VICTORIA’s peak farming industry body is struggling to maintain members, prompting concerns over ensuring farmers continue to be represented.

This comes after the Victoria Farmers Federation’s financial year results were presented at their annual general meeting on Monday.

“This year in particular we saw some consistent trends in reducing numbers of members for the VFF and that is a concern for the board both in terms of making sure we are representing farmers, but also for the financial health of organisation,” VFF finance committee chair Andrew Dix said.

Another hit came from dairy after levies dropped to $1,791,720 for the 2019, compared with $1,987,831 last financial year.

“There have also been falls in levy income following the falling milk production over the past 12 months,” Mr Dix said. “So we have had a perfect storm.”

Revenue for the financial year ending September 30 was $6,963,673. This is compared to the previous financial year’s revenue of $7,286,272.

Total comprehensive income for this financial year was at $182,582, dropping substantially from $7,815,388 the previous financial year.

The multi-million drop was due to the federation recording a windfall from its Farrer House investment last financial year of $5,840,180.

However, while revenue slumped VFF’s directors’ and president received a pay rise, from $504,545 in 2018 to $537,391 last year. The report found employee expenses were largely unchanged at $3,537,520 this financial year compared to $3,413,415.

“I think the expenses of the organisation certainly come in both below budget and below previous years,” Mr Dix said.

“We have done a strong expense control, but expense control is not the saviour for this organisation. We need to make sure it has a viable future through strong and robust membership.”

VFF chief executive officer Stephen Sheridan said with membership income the pressure point, the VFF needed to see how it could market to the broader farm community.