Wesfarmers-owned Coles supermarket is set to lift the amount of milk it sources from Western Australian dairy farmers by 33 percent, with its three major new dairy contracts.

From January 2012, Coles brand cream, sour cream, yoghurt and custard sold in Western Australia will be produced by local processors.

The three year contracts to local suppliers will see Coles source an additional 7.5 million litres of milk from Western Australian dairy farmers.

The new Coles brand contracts include Brownes to produce Coles cream and yoghurt, using over four million litres of milk annually; Mundella Foods to produce Coles sour cream, using 1.8 million litres of milk annually; and Harvey Fresh to produce Coles custard for all Coles stores nationally, using 1.5 million litres of milk annually.

The new contracts follow the announcement in July 2011 of Coles awarding its Western Australian private label milk contract to Harvey Fresh.

Coles Merchandise Director John Durkan said the new contracts meant Coles will have private label dairy partnerships with all the major locally owned WA processors.

“These new Coles brand partnerships are great news for the Western Australian dairy industry. They will see Coles source extra milk volumes to produce quality local products for our Western Australian customers,” Mr Durkan said.