Murray Goulburn is constructing a bottling plant at Edith Creek in North-West Tasmania that will require an additional 20 million liters of milk to produce long-life flavored milk and protein shakes to be shipped to markets in Asia. The $14 million plant will be operating at full capacity by next year and Managing DirectorGary Helou states that the industry needs more dairy farmers supplying more milk. Because Tasmania’s growth is so directly connected to Asian markets, there is a call for a direct international shipping route to be reinstated to enable exporters to get their products to Asia without having to ship via Melbourne. Tasmania Premier, Will Hodgman has stated that a direct route will be reinstated by the government. Currently Tasmania is producing 800 million liters of milk per year however, Mr. Helou states that the region could produce three billion liters and not be oversupplied because of demand.
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