Move To Limit Cheese

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31765, 23 August 1968, Page 22

Move To Limit Cheese

(N.Z. frail Am.— Copyright!

SYDNEY, Aug. 22.

Australian dairyfarmers plan to call for restrictions on imports of fancy cheese as part of a full-scale bid to reorganise their industry.

The move on cheese is one of four recommendations made by the Federal dairy committee of the Australian Primary Producers’ Union to help alleviate the generally depressed condition of Australian dairying. New Zealand is one of Australia’s main suppliers of cheese. Cheddar cheese is subject to o Quote restriction

under the New Zealand-Aus-tralia Free Trade Agreement but fancy varieties are allowed in unlimited quantities. The Federal body has asked its member organisations in the States to consider the following recommendations to aid the industry:

Restrictions on imported fancy cheese. Establishing the Australian Dairy Produce Board as the sole selling authority overseas (a similar system to that of New Zealand). Consolidating all milk manufacture in one marketing authority. Allocating a total quota of all dairy sales to each farmer.

The Federal Government plans to spend s2sm on reconstruction of the dairy industry in the next four years.

The scheme involves helping small, uneconomic dairy farmers to sell out and assisting others to expand and diversify.

The Federal and State Governments have so far been unable to agree on the financial workings of the scheme, but hope it will start this year.

Surveys estimate that 55 per cent of Australia’s 62,000 dairy farmers have incomes under $2OOO a year.