Federated Farmers has stepped back into the fresh milk issue.

The Federation believes farmers and consumers should  have the option of selling and buying raw drinking milk from the farm gate.

And it says MAF is on the right track in its recommendation to remove the necessity for farmers selling raw milk at the farmgate from having expensive Risk Management Programmes.

At the moment farmers can legally sell up to five litres of raw milk to a member of the public but Federated Farmers dairy chairperson, Willy Leferink, says the cost of the required risk management plan makes it prohibitive.  

"It would kill the opportunity, I don’t know exactly how much but it would kill the opportunity. You wouldn’t even want to go there.

"One farmer who sells quite a bit of milk in the Hawke’s Bay went through the process and it was quite horrendous."

Mr Leferink says a simple paper trail would ensure the farmer’s milk was audited and traceable and that in return for being exempt from Risk Management Plans, the participating farms would have to meet hygiene standards. 

He says at the moment a farmer has to go through the same processes to get a risk management programme as Fonterra and Synlait do at their processing plants.

Mr Leferink says sourcing milk from the farmgate is a popular, but largely North Island, phenomenon.

"We were actually totally amazed at how much raw milk was sold in the country. It’s particularly the North Island you don’t see a lot of it in the South island. So a lot of people with allergies and stuff just don’t seem to have the same problem with raw milk." 

Federated Farmers is surveying its members on the subject to find out just what they think about raw milk sales at the farmgate.