A ministerial briefing warns unregistered raw milk providers are depleting Government coffers by up to $70,000 each year.
The Ministry for Primary Industries requires dairy farmers to register if they want to produce raw milk, and follow hygiene rules around bottling, storing and distributing the milk. These rules came into effect in 2016.
Some suppliers found a loophole to avoid the associated compliance costs, which are said to be between $10,000 and $20,000.
They set up limited liability partnerships as a work-around to the regulations, which threatened the viability of many raw milk businesses, because they no longer allowed collection points. Milk had to be bought at the farm gate or delivered to customers' homes.