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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-06-17 Daily Xml
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Dairy Industry

Mr PICTON (Kaurna) (14:41): My question is also to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries. Can the minister update the house about the future of the UDP dairy plants at Murray Bridge and Jervois?

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL (Mawson—Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Tourism, Minister for Recreation and Sport, Minister for Racing) (14:41): I thank the member for Kaurna for this question. I also acknowledge that the member for Hammond had some words to say about this issue this morning. The Premier and I joined with Dr Roger Sexton this morning, who has the Beston Global Food Company. He stepped in and bought two milk plants, one at Jervois and one at Murray Bridge, that closed in April when the UDP business went into receivership. It was shocking news for the local area, shocking news for dairy farmers everywhere and bad news for the South Australian economy, because we all know that when the regions are thriving and when our agricultural sector is thriving everyone in the state does really well.

So, it was terrible news back in April but very good news to stand there today with Roger Sexton as he announced that his company was going to take over both of those plants. They will have 12 people employed there from September to put the plants back together again and then they look to hiring as many of those 120 people who lost their jobs in April in the first 12 months as they ramp up the production to 100 million litres of milk, which is what UDP was processing before they went into receivership, but Dr Sexton's goal is to actually reach 200 million litres of milk produced each year through those two plants.

One of the things they are going to need to do is renegotiate contracts with dairy farmers throughout South Australia, who were fortunate that dairy processors over the border took their milk on board in April so that we didn't have a case of milk being wasted. I must congratulate David Basham from the South Australian Dairy Association, who has done a tremendous job in helping the dairy industry, the receivers and the government through this very difficult time. It was good to hear Dr Sexton say this morning that David Basham and SADA will hold a town hall style meeting to try to get the word out there that this business at Jervois and Murray Bridge is going to be back up and operating from September and they are going to want as many milk contracts as they can possibly get.

The great thing about the work of Beston Global Food Company and its label Beston Pure Foods is that it is ticking all the boxes on at least six of our state government's economic priorities. Of course, the main one is that we produce premium food and wine from our clean environment and that we export it to the world, but it's also ticking a lot of other boxes in terms of innovation. Dr Sexton isn't just talking about putting milk through those plants and producing sort of fairly basic milk produce but really high end, high value products that he can sell not only here but around the world.

He has teed up some amazing distribution networks through South-East Asia and through China. He's got supermarkets involved. He has a retail outlet for whatever it is that he produces. His company already owns about 35 per cent of Paris Creek dairies, so he has some experience in the dairy industry. It also owns a share in Ferguson seafoods, so when they are selling their produce into China, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, they have skin in the game at the very source. I think that is a terrific business model, and I commend Dr Sexton and all the people involved in Beston Global Food Company.

I thank the member for Hammond for his continued cooperation on this. We have been on the phone several times over the past 12 months. We both had very strong fears for what might happen. Unfortunately, in April we saw those fears eventuate, but I think today is the first day of what should be a very bright future for this company and also for those workers. While there are 130 workers directly employed—hopefully we will see even more than that employed—there are hundreds of other people in the Murray Bridge and Jervois area who rely on the good work that is done by the people in those two factories.

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