SA dairy industry from 'grass to glass'

South Australia’s dairy industry is creating ‘grass to glass’ branding as it works to build a premium trademark around the world. The plan will audit, track and verify the state’s dairy industry as its milk, cheese, yoghurt and ice cream moves through the supply chain.

South Australian Dairyfarmers’ Association Chief Executive Andrew Curtis said two new projects will this year work towards having the state’s products recognised as being among the world’s safest, greenest and best quality.

The industry planned to first build a framework to audit the state’s 241 dairy farms along with its processors of cheese, yoghurt and ice cream and to then work towards making certification happen.

Curtis said the plan recognised the state’s smaller, niche dairy industry was producing demonstrably higher standard products, with the new marketing approach better targeting Asia’s growing middle class searching for premium products.

South Australia produces about 500 million litres of milk a year, around 6% of Australia’s annual production of almost nine billion litres. Association President and South East dairy farmer John Hunt said the industry launched a five-year action plan in April 2019. It is now moving forward in recognising the state is “uniquely poised to carve out a niche in the global market place by placing itself at the front of the premium market”.

“It’s the whole chain, we have a certain standard we are going to adhere to and it’s going to be easy to follow,” Hunt said.

“We have to differentiate ourselves so we see a South Australian product and you almost don’t have to worry about reading the label.”

This is a modified version of a news item published by The Lead South Australia under CC BY 4.0

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