skip to main content skip to main navigation
Dairy farmers who sell their milk production on credit to processors or cooperatives are in need of an updated method of ensuring they get paid in the event of a default. This need was highlighted with the recent situation involving the Parmalat corporation. Current bonding limits for dairy producers were last adjusted in 1972.

It is suggested that New Jersey’s protection for dairy farmers be updated as soon as possible. Care should be taken to have these revisions be similar in scope to those protections in effect in the surrounding states such as New York and Pennsylvania.

The leadership in New Jersey’s dairy industry prefers that a milk handlers security fund be created as the method of guaranteeing payment. The per hundredweight rate of contribution, financial disclosures payment procedures, and other details should be determined by an ad hoc committee created by the State Board of Agriculture. Due to the urgency of the situation, this committee’s recommendations should be completed within thirty days from the conclusion of this State Agricultural Convention. This committee should consult the New Jersey Dairy Committee and others for suggestions on the content of the proposed security fund.

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that we, the delegates to the 89th State Agricultural Convention, assembled in Long Branch, New Jersey on February 4, 2004, support the need for updating milk payment guarantees through the establishment of a milk industry security fund.