Clearly British campaign: '˜Dairy industry is a bloodbath with no market upturn in sight'

Rob Harrison accused milk buyers of flouting the industry’s voluntary code on contractual best practice for how they were leaving hard working dairy farmers to pay for global factors.

Arla is the latest processor to announce a milk price cut, totalling 0.8 pence and taking the UK standard litre price to 21.81p per litre for its “on-account amba” members. Müller has also reduced its price, by 1ppl, so far this year.

More exits from the sector are now “inevitable”, Mr Harrison said, as new price cuts hit - a necessity according to processors who blame overproduction of milk in the UK, and in other European countries, since the abolition of quotas last year which controlled the volume of milk produced in EU member states.

Mr Harrison, national dairy board chairman of the National Farmers’ Union, even urged farmers to seriously consider whether the time had now come for them to walk away from milking.

“With no sign of a market upturn in coming months we will inevitably see a large number of dairy farmers leave the industry,” Mr Harrison said.

“No-one can continue to produce milk at a loss.

“Milk contract terms and pricing schedules are being changed with no negotiation, flouting the voluntary code, and farmers are being put on notice. It is a bloodbath and those suffering the most are our hard working dairy farmers.

“I’d urge every dairy farmer out there to seriously look at his or her own business and question whether it can survive another period of low milk prices.”

At this critical time for dairy farmers, The Yorkshire Post’s Clearly British campaign is calling on food retailers, processors and the wider food industry to adopt clear dairy labels that leave shoppers in no doubt when they are buying a product made with milk which is entirely from British farms.

Under current EU rules, dairy products can be labelled as produced in whichever country they were processed last rather than according to where the milk is actually from.

Clearer labels are one way to better support British dairy farmers and Mr Harrison agreed that now is the time for milk buyers to show they support farmers in this country.

To milk buyers, he said: “We want confirmation that you’re not taking advantage of the current market downturn and that you are doing all you can to add value to every litre of British milk.

“We’ve recently written to the main UK milk purchasers to assess compliance to the voluntary code on contracts – once we have the responses we will clearly see which are treating farmers fairly and which aren’t.

“My message to everyone – retailers, food service and manufacturers - now is the time to show that you support British dairy and want to see a thriving, sustainable industry in the future.

“Farmers want confirmation that you are serious about the future of UK dairy.”

To demand clear dairy labels, to make it easier to identify British dairy products, sign The Yorkshire Post’s Clearly British petition here.