Dairy farmers to benefit from new prison milk supply contract

A new “scorecard” will be used by the Government to buy more produce from British farmers, Environment Secretary Liz Truss said - a system which she said will focus on the value of local production, the freshness and taste of food as well as its cost.

Speaking at the National Farmers’ Union annual conference in Birmingham, the Leeds-raised MP told the conference that the Ministry of Justice’s new £500m contract for prison meals would use the scorecard, supporting UK producers, and all UHT milk served in prisons will, for the first time in years, be British from April.

Across the public sector, including in schools, hospitals, government departments and military canteens, there will be an extra £400m of British food served that used to be sourced from abroad, she said.

“Our Great British Food campaign is championing the industry in Britain and across the world,” Ms Truss said, adding that she was working to open up markets for beef and other products in countries such as the US and China.

At odds with the stance of her Defra colleague, Farming Minister George Eustice, Ms Truss laid out her support for Britain’s continued membership of the EU, but she blamed the complexity of the EU subsidy system for late payments to farmers, saying the Rural Payments Agency was working seven days a week to process claims.

By last weekend, more than £1bn has been paid to nearly 71,000 farmers, around four-fifths of those eligible for payments.

Almost all would be paid by the end of March, she said.

NFU president Meurig Raymond said the situation - which has seen farmers already hit by low prices for their produce pushed further into difficulties - “can’t go on”.

The union leader said a quarter of recipients had received nothing by the end of January, while 16,000 farmers - many of whom rely on the payments to pay bills, rents or mortgages - in England still had not been paid.

In Wales, one in six farmers had not received the money, he said.

He also hit out at supermarkets, who he said “may say one thing publicly, but we know that they will push the pain down onto their suppliers and they’ll do it because they think they can”, forcing prices below the cost of production.

Mr Raymond highlighted a heavily critical report by the Groceries Code Adjudicator, which found Tesco had seriously breached the code of practice over the way it treated suppliers, including delaying payments to them, often for long periods.

He also called for an extension of the code and the adjudicator’s role - which York Outer MP Julian Sturdy is also championing.

HOW TO BACK BRITISH DAIRY FARMERS

With the average farm gate price for milk still way below the cost of production, The Yorkshire Post’s Clearly British campaign is urging the food service, retail and processing industries to help customers better identify genuinely all-British dairy products on their shelves.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble, speaking in the House of Lords on Monday, agreed that the labelling of dairy products must be improved.

He said: “It is very important people know that, when they buy British produce, it is not British-processed produce but produce that is grown in this country.”

The remarks came as he faced a series of questions about the state of the dairy industry prompted by Baroness McIntosh of Pickering.

Click here to sign our petition urging action to improve dairy product labelling.

Battle begins for better dairy labels to help our farmers

Five reasons to support our Clearly British campaign

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