That certainly needs to include "tak[ing] some power away from supermarkets" but could also stretch to the extent of a royal commission, Peel Valley farmer Jamie Drury told Country Leader.

"The idea of a royal commission appeals greatly to me - yes, I know they're costly and very time-consuming but, by jeez, it's shaken up the banking industry," Mr Drury said.

"There are so many things in supermarket deals that can skirt around the law as close as they possibly can."

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Mr Drury and about half a dozen other farmers, plus sitting and aspiring politicians, attended the forum last week at Oxley Bowling Club.

It was hosted by dairy heifer breeder Milton Christian, who wants to see farmers get "a fair go" and their returns increase to $1 a litre.

Senator John Williams, a key speaker, told the group there was "no silver bullet" to helping the industry prosper but promised to bring concerns and ideas to the party room next month.

Mr Drury said he agreed the solutions were not simple, but one of the problems was that supermarkets "wield" too much power.

Senator Williams spoke about a mandatory code of practice, now at regulation-drafting stage; Mr Drury said it was "not actually really doing the amount of good it needs to do".

"[It's] a safety net between the producer and the processor. What the mandatory code is missing is the relationship between the processor and supermarket."

One example was a processor wanting to lift its product shelf price, leading to fewer sales short-term but better profits long-term - to be shared with farmers.

"Their sales drop, the supermarket says; 'You're not meeting our sales targets for that [item]; if you can't lift those, they're removed from the shelf'.

"They're basically shown the door. The processor, the easiest way for them to get sales back in a short period of time is to drop the price again, therefore they make less money, we make less money. That's one of many ways these guys flog the processors."

Mr Drury said he understood consumers wanted a low-cost overall shop, but milk was bearing the brunt.

"What we need to be able to do is get the price of milk, fresh fruit and vegetables to a level where everyone can make money in the supply chain. How about we pull some dollars off some of those other prices?"