GREAT South Coast Group chairman Chris O’Connor has backed a proposal by a Chinese-backed consortium to set up a new dairy company with its own farms and dairy factories in the south-west that would export to China.
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The Corangamite mayor said he was not concerned about the consortium’s proposal to control all steps in the production and distribution chain from the farm to the consumer.
Cr O’Connor said the dairy products produced by the consortium would still add value to the economy.
“The taxation department is on top of that,” he said.
“There is no risk with vertical integration where the value of the product is not realised before it leaves the country.”
He also dismissed concerns about the plan to use Glenormiston College, near Terang, to train overseas workers to work on the syndicate’s farms.
One of consortium’s partners, Linear Capital, says it is interested in using the college to train both local and overseas people for the project.
“My understanding is there will be every attempt with this concept to continue farmers on family farms, to keep current labour on the farms,” Cr O’Connor said.
“There has been no suggestion in any discussions with the consortium of farm workers being brought from overseas.”
He said he understood the plan was still “very much in the balance”.
“It’s not over the line,” Cr O’Connor said. “No farms have changed hands.
“All investors have not committed.”
Cr O’Connor said if the plan did proceed, he believed it would be “a wonderful result for the area” to have Glenormiston College reopened for agricultural education.
“It’s something that we do really well,” he said.
Ausbuy, a not-for-profit organisation that promotes Australian-owned businesses slammed the consortium’s plan, saying it would mean “the Chinese government’s state-owned enterprises will effectively sell offshore to themselves and Australia will again be the poorer for it”.
Farmer activist group Farmer Power last week also criticised the consortium’s plans, saying it was fearful of vertical integration because it could reduce competition in the marketplace.