Murray Goulburn looks to be national champion

16 December 2013

There have been very few winners from Holden’s decision to abandon Australian car manufacturing by 2017. But it has perhaps come at a good time for the nation’s biggest dairy processor, Murray Goulburn Co-operative.

Against the backdrop of a rotting ­manufacturing sector, suffering rising costs and a high Australian dollar, Murray Goulburn (MG) offers hope.

The Victorian co-operative wants to buy rival Warrnambool Cheese and Butter (WCB) to become one of the world’s top 20 food producers, processing milk powders, cheese and nutritional products from nine facilities in Victoria and South Australia, and turning over an estimated $3.2 billion annually.

It promises to deliver the nation an ­agricultural champion that can better take on global titans such as New Zealand’s Fonterra, the world’s biggest dairy exporter.

This, it says, will have an enormous “multiplier effect” for the local economies in ­Victoria and South Australia that are feeling the brunt of the manufacturing downturn.

Murray Goulburn says for every $1 in economic activity in primary industry such as dairy processing, there is a total increase in economic activity of between $2 to $3.21. In other words, increasing its processing ­capability helps not just MG, but a host of sub industries and suppliers.

Source: The Autralian Dairyfarmer,  MG wants to be ‘national champion‘, 16 Dec