The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has released a report identifying Dairy Code of Conduct compliance issues for processors. The report identified issues such as failure to make milk supply agreements (MSAs) freely viewable by 1 June and failure to publish non-exclusive MSAs alongside exclusive MSAs along with other issues relating to compliance with the code.

The ACCC is currently investigating alleged non-compliance in MSAs and Saputo and Union Dairy Company (UDC) have both had action taken against them. Saputo failed to publish its MSAs on time due to a late technical failure and UDC required users to fill in an online form before being able to access the MSAs. UDC’s barrier to the MSA was deemed inappropriate, undermining the transparency the code was aiming to achieve.  

The Federal Government is leading a review of the code this year with an accompanying report to be completed by 31 December. A second Dairy Code review is scheduled for 2023.