Beingmate chairman Wang Zhentai said: «Working together with Fonterra, we will create globally
competitive, safe and secure
supply chains to deliver high - quality, advanced
dairy nutrition to meet the needs of China's growing population as well global consumers.
Dairy Crest has picked up a new 50m litre milk
supply contract with Tesco but reported a 24 % drop in operating profit in its
dairies division to # 10.9 m on the back of higher input costs and
competitive pressures.
Mr Harvey said smaller, and newer
dairy players, were set to continue actively recruiting milk to secure their share of the pool, meaning
competitive pressures for milk
supply were likely to intensify.
Changes to competition laws (milk wars discussion and recommendations relating to MMP (introduce effects test), predatory pricing (recommend Minister direct ACCC to investigate Coles for breach of s 46 relating to predatory pricing), unconscionable conduct (suggest it be defined), statutory duty of good faith, unfair contract terms (seeks «recognition of the
competitive disadvantage faced by farmers» and extension of unfair contract terms protection to small business), collective bargaining (seeks relaxation of public interest test for boycott approvals in agriculture markets, increase «ability for peak bodies to commence and progress collective bargaining and boycott applications» on behalf of members - and further
dairy specific recommendations, ACCC divestiture power (wants ACCC to have similar divestiture powers to Comp Commission in UK - «simpler process of divestiture», ACCC monitoring powers (wants Minister to direct ACCC to use price monitoring powers to «monitor prices, costs and profits relating to the
supply of drinking milk») and mandatory code of conduct (wants mandatory code and «Ombudsman with teeth to ensure compliance»)-RRB-.