A multi-million dollar support package to help debt-ridden farmers affected by unforeseen price cuts by dairy manufacturers has been announced today by the Federal government.
Many dairy farmers from Tasmania, Victoria and South Australia have been devastated by a shock decision from the dairy corporations to retrospectively cut their milk prices, causing them to have massive debts.
Murray Goulburn slashed the price of milk solids from $5.60/kg to between $4.75 and $5/kg because of a global slump, with competitor Fonterra following suit shortly afterwards.
$55 million will be made available this financial year to Dairy Recovery Concessional loans for dairy farmers who supply Murray-Goulburn and Fonterra. Affected dairy farmers will be able to access these loans immediately. They will also be able to access $500 million in concessional loans in the 2016-17 and 2017-18 years.
The recovery loans will be for 10-year terms, to be funded by expanding the drought concessional loan scheme to include dairy-specific criteria.
The loans will help farmers with cashflow in their businesses. Some farmers lost two years of profits in one day when the milk prices were retrospectively changed.
The government is also providing $900,000 for nine financial counsellors in Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania and South Australia to work with the dairy sector, and the Department of Human Services will appoint a dairy industry liaison officer.
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