A COLLABORATION with WAFarmers to export fresh WA milk to the Chinese port city of Dalian has ended.
WAFarmers president Tony York said the WAFarmersFirst fresh milk component of the export project with Chinese businessman Sha Yi, managing director of Perth-based food import company Lifeland (Aust) Pty Ltd, was terminated last year.
The fresh milk, which sold as a premium niche product for the equivalent of between $10 and $11 a litre in gourmet food outlets, was dropped in favour of extended shelf life (ESL) and ultra high temperature (UHT) milk with far less critical transport time frames.
The WAFarmersFirst milk had been processed and packaged in one litre containers by Harvey Fresh and was air-freighted by Singapore Airlines on the most direct routes to airports closest to Dalian to minimise potential delays.
"A commercial decision was made between Harvey Fresh and Lifeland last year to no longer supply WAFarmersFirst milk to the China market, in favour of ESL and UHT milk," Mr York said.
"Lifeland is currently reviewing its options to continue its fresh milk supply from alternate suppliers.
"Despite this, it is business as usual, as Lifeland continues to develop the WAFarmersFirst brand in China with dairy and honey products and (to) get locals excited about Western Australian produce," he said.
Last September Mr York inspected the Dalian distribution and retail end of the project with Mr Sha and declared it "a very good business".
The venture was announced in September, 2015, at the WAFarmers' Heart of WA ball and after two trial deliveries, regular weekly deliveries of fresh milk to Dalian started last April.
Initial teething problems with some packaging leaks in pressurised aircraft holds was overcome, but the project's logistics remained difficult.
Mr York has previously said each shipment had to be treated as a new export with milk samples sent from Harvey Fresh to the China Certification and Inspection Corporation Australia for testing and the quarantine and entry approvals forwarded to the milk's intended destination before each pallet load was allowed into China.
The WAFarmersFirst fresh milk was competing against much cheaper local milk and imports from South Korea, as well as ESL and UHT milk from Australia and Europe, in Dalian a city of six million people.