One million litres of milk will be going to people in need under an historic new partnership between Foodbank Australia and the Australian dairy industry, which is being supported by the Australian Government. The Australian Government has pledged A$4 million over the next four years to Foodbank Australia in this year’s budget to ensure the organisation builds new partnerships with food growers, producers and manufacturers. The Collaborative Supply Program for Milk is the first time an entire industry... ...Read more »

Australia’s largest dairy processor, Parmalat, in conjunction with packaging giant Tetra, has launched a new white milk carton. Parmalat, which fields fresh white milk brands Pauls Full Cream, Rev and Skinny Milk in Victoria, claims the new packaging is the “first significant innovation in fresh white milk packaging for 10 years”. Parmalat’s Rowville processing plant, in Victoria, has been undergone a A$2.2 million refit to allow a shift from existing gable top cartons to the... ...Read more »

Milk processor Parmalat Australia has come under fire from Dairy Farmers Milk Co-operative (DFMC) over its approach to securing raw milk to fulfil a new private label contract with Woolworths. The dairy farmers are not happy. Their co-operative, the DFMC, has warned that the viability of the New South Wales Dairy Industry is “under threat”, based on its belief that Parmalat has secured very little milk from New South Wales suppliers to meet the 110 million litres required on an annual basis to... ...Read more »

Lactalis has claimed it has become the world’s largest maker of dairy products, after the French company sealed the takeover of Italian rival Parmalat, owner of Australian milk brand Paul’s. After the deadline for Lactalis’s EUR3.4bn (US$4.8bn) offer for Parmalat passed this afternoon, the company said it had secured 83.3% of the business. With the takeover of Parmalat, Lactalis has an estimated turnover of EUR15bn and has become the “worldwide leader in dairy products”,... ...Read more »

Lactalis, the French dairy company, now owns over half of its Italian rival Parmalat, owner of Australian milk brand Paul’s, as the EUR3.4 billion takeover of the business edges closer.Today is the final day for shareholders in Parmalat to accept Lactalis’s offer of EUR2.60 a share for the 71% of the company it did not already own. By yesterday afternoon, Lactalis had managed to secure over 50% of the shares in Parmalat. The French firm needs to secure 55% of Parmalat for the deal to... ...Read more »

Woolworths has announced plans to source all its own-label fresh milk products from Parmalat in NSW, a move the company said is not related to its ‘milk war’ with Coles. The company has moved the supply of own-label milk under the Woolworths Fresh and Woolworths Home Brands labels in the state from National Foods (recently renamed to Lion) to Parmalat. Parmalat, which operates in Australia under the Paul’s, Rev and Breaka labels, is an Italian-owned conglomerate, currently under... ...Read more »

Floods, cyclones, and prolonged wet weather are expected to cut some 40 million litres from milk production in the seven months to June 2011 in the northern production region, with production for the first few months of 2011 being down by some 20 percent, Queensland dairy farmers heard today. At the annual Situation and Outlook (S&O) breakfast – where industry body Dairy Australia presented its latest industry statistics – farmers and industry were told that the summer of disaster... ...Read more »

The European Commission has cleared Lactalis’s proposed acquisition of fellow dairy group Parmalat, producer of Australian milk brand Paul’s.Lactalis has made a EUR3.4bn (US$4.91bn) takeover bid for the 71% of Parmalat that it does not already own. The EUR2.60-a-share offer, which some Parmalat shareholders believe is too low, is open to investors in the Italian dairy company until 8 July. The Commission said today (14 June) that the deal would not “significantly impede effective... ...Read more »

Parmalat has recalled its one-litre plastic bottles of Pura Milk full cream with a use-by of 15 June, after the company said it believed the batch had been contaminated with “a small amount” of food-grade sanitiser. The milk was distributed in NSW and the ACT only, in IGA and Foodworks supermarkets, service stations (such as Mobil and Caltex), hospitals and corner stores in metro and regional areas. The company said that the contamination “would result in the product having a metallic... ...Read more »

The Queensland Dairyfarmers’ Organisation today warned that the state’s dairy farmers are expected to fall short of producing enough milk to meet the State’s drinking milk demand this year, and said that this trend was being worsened by artificially low milk prices set by Coles and Woolworths. Impacts from the Queensland flood, Cyclone Yasi and farmers exiting the market mean that the 2011 milk yield may be down as much as  490 million litres. “The supermarkets are creating a situation... ...Read more »