AN INDEPENDENT landmark report out today into Guernsey’s dairy industry could prove pivotal to the future of the island’s agricultural industry as a whole.

Depending on the final decision by the States following consultation on the findings, the Dairy Industry Review is likely to form a blueprint for farmers, milk retailers, the Dairy and the role that Commerce and Employment will play in all of this.

Due to the unique structure of the dairy industry the panel’s recommendations are far-ranging. The document, commissioned by the Policy Council after a States resolution in 2008, covers several key areas – from the best use of the island’s countryside and the importance of sustaining the Guernsey herd, to the zoning of milk rounds, the overall running of the Dairy and the implications of having C & E act as both Dairy operator and regulator.

While it is said to have opted for a ‘light touch’ approach to managing the Dairy, by devolving power to the Dairy’s own board and pricing to the Milk Review Panel, any conflict of interest is said to be hard to pinpoint. But, as seen in recent years, distribution issues still remain and, as the report warns, ‘could give rise to conflict at any time’. Making the Dairy a limited company is the panel’s recommended option.

It also touches on how other unresolved matters will also need to be addressed sooner rather than later if the industry is to meet future challenges.

Retaining available land for agricultural use through legislation, making an EU-compliant slaughterhouse a priority to allow beef business to supplement dairy farm incomes, and keeping and maintaining sustainable doorstep delivery in an island where fewer now use this option but others rely on it for their livelihoods, are all marked urgent.

Meanwhile, many milk retailers will welcome its call for compensation having lost business when the Dairy was allowed to deal directly with supermarkets on fresh milk deliveries.

To what extent the recommendations will be embraced remains to be seen. What appears certain is that change is imminent in an industry much altered from an era when Guernsey boasted 300 dairy farms and a milk distribution system almost entirely reliant on doorstep delivery.

As the report’s authors state, the ‘changed circumstances within the dairy chain question the present structure’. At the very least, its call for a need to bring the various parties within the island’s dairy industry together as a unit to manage future challenges should be heeded. The implications of the review stretch way beyond the daily pinta.