NSW dairy farmers to build their own processing plant

Seven dairy farmers on the south coast of NSW are planning to build their own $1.5 million factory to process fresh and flavoured milk and cheese for the local region.

The plant, which is expected to be up and running by December, will be owned and operated by the Berry Rural Cooperative Society, which already trades under the name of South Coast Dairy.

South Coast Dairy currently supplies various dairy products to major retailers between Wollongong and the Victorian border.

The co-op's chairman, Paul Timbs, said the Berry cooperative had been working on the project for seven years under the South Coast dairy banner, however to date its products had been processed by Country Valley in Picton.

Timbs said South Coast Dairy had outgrown the capacity of that facility.

“We've developed our marketing strategy, our sales and distribution and it's worked really nicely and grown pretty well,” he said.

Timbs said the the factory would offer South Coast Dairy more capacity and more independence and would also cut the cost of transporting the milk.

“At the moment we truck it two hours there and two hours back before we even start distribution,” he said.

According to Timbs, the parting was amicable, with South Coast Dairy planning to process flavoured milk for its current processor, which would in turn continue to process yoghurt for South Coast Dairy.