September 1: How EU regulations wrecked milk market
IT is my submission that the very low reward which dairy farmers are receiving for their seven days-a-week, 365 days-a-year labour is entirely due to European Union regulations.
In the early 1930s, during the premiership of Stanley Baldwin, our wholesale milk producers were in a similar position as today when the market was flooded with supply sourced from the West Country and Lake District, the less favoured areas.
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Hide AdThe Milk Marketing Board scheme was for the milk retailers to pay a levy which was passed on to the consumer.
This satisfactory situation resulted in the annual Milk Race, a costly cycling scheme introduced by the then chairman Sir Steven Roberts.
But this state of affairs was then deemed illegal under a European Union dictat which resulted in each milk producer receiving a quota, which this year has been abolished by Brussels.
Milk is now dirt cheap, a multiple of less than forty times the 1939 price which was 3d (pennies) in summer and 3½d in winter – October/March.
Our general public would willingly pay a small increase which could easily be passed on by the all too-powerful supermarket chains.