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Farmers urged to take lead in fight to boost the farmgate price of milk [Western Morning News (England)]
[October 02, 2014]

Farmers urged to take lead in fight to boost the farmgate price of milk [Western Morning News (England)]


(Western Morning News (England) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Farmers for Action leader David Handley told dairy farmers yesterday they should reduce the amount of milk they produce to boost prices.

In a debate at the Dairy Show, the major annual forum for the Westcountry dairy industry, Mr Handley rejected the suggestion that nothing could be done to improve the farmgate price of milk and told farmers their future was in their own hands.



Milk prices for thousands of Westcountry dairy producers have been falling in recent months, after reaching a high point in February. A reduction in global demand, fuelled by the Chinese buying less milk powder for baby food, combined with the Russian ban on EU dairy imports, is widely blamed for the price fall, which has left many Westcountry farmers producing milk at a loss.

But Mr Handley told a large crowd at the Bath and West Showground, Shepton Mallet, they needed to talk to their milk buyer about reducing their output. "The Government says milk is a near- perfect food product," he told farmers. "You produce it and you deserve to be paid the proper price for it." Average milk prices have slumped by more than 2p a litre for farmers since February with further falls through the autumn and winter widely predicted. Mr Handley alleged the major dairy processors were making the cuts - egged on by the supermarkets who are selling four pints of milk for a pound - "because they can." He promised Farmers for Action - which organised pickets of milk processors the last time the price plunged in 2012 - would be unveiling an action plan in four days' time.


And he told farmers: "Over the past 15 years the only time we've succeeded in getting our market price where it should be is when we've protested." But National Farmers' Union dairy board chairman-Rob Harrison said volatility in the price paid to farmers was one of the consequences of milk becoming a globally traded commodity. "We've got to find the tools to deal with it," he said. He indicated the NFU would be pressing for a marketing campaign to raise the profile of milk and other dairy products. "We need a Milk Week to promote what we do in the UK," he said. But he warned farmers it would be impossible for them to manage a global market and cutting production of milk in the UK would encourage foreign producers to move in and take market share from the UK.

Britain is currently only 80% self-sufficient in milk and dairy products and needs to work towards meeting more of the home market's needs, Mr Harrison said.

Jonathan Ovens, chairman of the milk buying cooperative Arla, told the debate milk needed to move from being a commodity to becoming a product more like bread, with stronger brands and brand recognition. "We've got to move from where are now, which is where bread was in the 1970s - sliced white or sliced brown - to give consumers a bigger choice of better products." (c) 2014 ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved.

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