Milk Price Rise Receives Praise

SCOTLAND, UK - NFU Scotland has warmly welcomed the news that Robert Wiseman Dairies is to increase the price it offers its dairy farmers, bucking the trend that has seen milk prices plummet over the past six months.
calendar icon 20 July 2009
clock icon 2 minute read

The company has confirmed an increase of 0.3p per litre to 24.32p per litre to be paid to farmers from August 1 with the price held until October. This is set against the average cost on farm of producing milk that is closer to 26p per litre.

The Union is adamant that all other milk processors involved in supplying the growing demand for fresh liquid milk should react immediately in a similar positive vein. For those processors involved in producing cheese and other dairy products, there is a real need for them to also improve their prices in the very near future.

NFU Scotland’s Milk Committee Chairman, Jimmy Mitchell said:

“In a spring and summer that has been short of good news for dairy farmers, the announcement that one of the UK’s largest milk processors is to increase the price it pays to its farmer suppliers will come as a blessed relief.

“The prices received by dairy farmers for their milk have fallen by almost 20 percent in the first seven months of 2009 and are stumbling along at a level that is well below the cost to a farmer of producing that milk. That cannot continue and other parts of dairy supply chain need to wake up to the reality that paying unsustainable prices over a prolonged period places our whole dairy sector in jeopardy.

“Confidence on dairy farms is at a very low level and milk production in the UK is heading southwards to volumes last seen in the sixties.

“We fully agree that the long term prospects for milk production and dairy products are brighter but farmers cannot live and work on promises of jam tomorrow. In the short term, milk buyers and retailers need to send a clear signal to all dairy farmers that their milk is wanted and valued appropriately. This milk price announcement from Robert Wiseman must provide the impetus for all farmgate prices to improve in the very near future.”

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