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48 Business View Australia - July 2015
Membership of
the federation
While the federation’s membership,
and subsequently revenue, has
declined in recent years, the
organisation is countering this with
a concerted effort to enrol more
members, especially those from the
younger generation. It has met with
success in its efforts with the addition
of newmembers but continues to strive
for an increase in overall numbers.
“What’s been happening in agriculture
is that the physical size of farms
have been growing while the number
of actual farms becomes less and
less,” says Dale Park, detailing the
reasons for the decline in the number
of members. “I would say that the
number of farms in Western Australia
is probably half of what it was 30 years
ago, so that just makes it tougher
for organisations like ours because
we charge on an enterprise basis,
so less people appear on our list.”
Dairy industry
WAFarmers
has
a
dedicated
Dairy Council which works towards
influencing the regulations and laws
under which the dairy industry in
Western Australia functions. The
specific areas that it targets for its
attentionareanimalhealthandwelfare,
water and environment, milk pricing
and the promotion of the industry.
The dairy industry is pimarily located in
thesouth-westofWesternAustraliaand
accounts for about 337 million litres of
milk a year which is 4% of the country’s
milk production. The 160 dairy farms
in the state rely on WAFarmers and
its Dairy Council to communicate with
the government and take other steps
to help the dairy industry operate in
a sustainable and profitable manner.
Outlining the challenges facing the
industry, Dale Park describes the
situation, “We have a relationship with
people like Coles because they sell a
lot of dairy products. The only problem
is, like agriculture around the world,
we are price takers and not price
setters. We are always battling trying
to get a better return for our members.
WeworkwithParmalatonthedairyside
and we also work with people who buy
our members’ produce. But of course
we don’t sell them the produce and that
makes the relationship interesting. We
really deal more with the government
and try to make sure that they make
life a little bit more competitive and a
little bit less taxing for our members.
There is usually someone between
our members and the consumer of
ASSOCIATIONS