Sales grow but retail milk price bites

摘要

At 5.3 billion litres, milk production volumes to December 2011 are about 3.5% ahead of the same time last year, the strongest growth rate over a six-month period in many years. Halfway through the season, Victorian milk volumes are up over 4%, with the northern region up 12%, the western region up 6% and Gippsland down 3% on a very strong spring last year. The remaining States show a mix of trends -Tasmania and New South Wales up 10% and 4% respectively, but South Australia down 3% and Queensland and Western Australia both down 6%. Dairy Australia is forecasting milk production to continue to grow strongly over the rest of the 2011/12 season to reach between 9.4 and 9.5 billion litres.