From the ABC Saturday October 3, 2009.
Qantas criticised over foreign butter
Qantas is under fire from the Federal Opposition for serving imported butter on its Australian flights.
Australian dairy farmers are receiving low prices for their milk because of a global downturn in demand for dairy products.
Farmers in Tasmania claim their industry is close to collapse after excessive rain and recent power cuts.
Tasmanian Liberal Senator Richard Colbeck says farmers are disappointed that Qantas is dishing up butter imported from Denmark.
"I found when I was flying to Western Australia last week that Qantas - the great Australian company, the national airline - is actually using butter from Denmark," he said.
"[That] really disappointed me, given there's significant subsidies on European butter at the moment, on European dairy products, and that adds up to disappoint local dairy farmers.
"They say on their website that they use the finest of Australian produce. This is clearly not Australian."
Qantas has confirmed it provides Lurpak butter.
A spokesman for the airline said the decision to purchase the cheaper Danish butter was made during the downturn in the aviation industry to minimise job losses.
Qantas says the butter served in its Qantas lounges is Australian.
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So good of Qantas to help minimise Danish job losses
