MPI receives 188 submissions for dairy industry review

MPI has received 188 submissions for the review of 2001 dairy industry legislation. Photo/NZ Herald.

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has received 188 submissions in response to its review of DIRA, the legislation that underpins New Zealand's dairy industry.

An MPI spokesperson said the ministry will now analyse all the submissions and develop policy recommendations for the Government to consider.

The Government will then decide whether any legislative changes should be made as a result of the review, she said.

"We expect that process to be well advanced by the end of 2019," the spokesperson said.

The deadline for submissions was last week.

Once policy decisions have been made by Cabinet, MPI will put all submissions onto its website for public review – subject to redactions under the Official Information Act.

A discussion document on options for reforming the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act (DIRA) was released last year.

DIRA was enacted in 2001 to preserve competition in the New Zealand dairy market in exchange for allowing the country's two largest dairy co-operatives to merge and form Fonterra.

Fostering competition for dairy products in the New Zealand market emerges as one of the most thorny issues in the DIRA review, with tension around current arrangements that guarantee Goodman Fielder 250 million litres of raw milk annually from Fonterra for competitive domestic supply.