This picture was recently sent to me by an alert consumer
It is a sign proudly advertising Woolworths home brand milk as permeate free (how predicable was that) Two other things caught my eye. Firstly it warmed the cockles of my heart to see the farmer brands at shoulder height. For those of you who don’t have years and years of retail marketing behind you shoulder height product placement is prized shelf space. It means the customer doesn’t have to reach or bend and it gives your product the highest probability for customer selection
The other thing that caught my eye was “Made from NSW Milk”. Now I for one am very happy that Woolies is spruiking this as a lot of my milk goes into their home brand milk.. It also goes into both the farmer brands Pura and Dairy Farmers ( which you can also see in the photo at shoulder height).
What I do know is milk is being trucked into the Lion factory en mass from Victoria. I don’t know what is happening at the Parmalat factory but I imagine this heatwave and resultant milk from NSW farms plummeting further is also putting them under pressure to outsource milk from Victoria.
The Victorian farmers aren’t happy either See Farmers protest at Warrnambool and a recent Weekly Times poll saying 75% of farmers think the Australian dairy industry is in crisis
I wonder if Woolies and Coles know how dire the milk shortage is and how much longer can Woolies proudly claim their milk is sourced solely from NSW farms. If NSW farmers and processors continue to be put under huge pressure from the supermarket price wars and now drought will we see an Australia wide milk shortage? Glad I have house cow I am not keen on buying milk imported from China. Are you?
BTW Interesting article from Sydney Morning Herald this morning Risk of crying over spilt milk as brands drop off shelves – Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/risk-of-crying-over-spilt-milk-as-brands-drop-off-shelves-20130118-2cyq0.html#ixzz2IO5UUy4V