Morrisons has confirmed the extra money is sent to Arla, one of the world’s biggest milk producers. It is eventually re-distributed among 13,000 farmers who between them own the business. Arla’s latest accounts show a little over a fifth of it is owned by UK farmers with almost a half in Denmark and Sweden and a further fifth in Germany.
If the For Farmers brand brings in an additional £5 million over the next 12 months, which it is predicted to do on current sales, that works out at just under £394 for each farmer – or a little over £1 a day.
In a string of emails to Morrisons customer services department – published by the farming magazine Farmers Weekly – one concerned consumer wrote on Oct 12: “I’ve just seen Milk For Farmers on your website. Will this [the additional 23p] be all [going] to British farmers as the Union Jack on the bottle suggests?” Morrisons ignored the question, and the shopper sent a number of further emails.
The supermarket dodged the question for a fortnight, admitting only: “I would like to confirm that the 23p is sent straight to Arla and they have guaranteed that the money will be distributed straight to dairy farmers.”
Morrisons has denied its campaign is misleading, pointing out the Union flag on its milk products shows that all its milk is produced on British farms. It insisted it had never actually said all the money would go to UK farmers.
The “For Farmers” brand, which includes cheeses, was launched after a backlash against supermarkets over low prices paid to UK dairy farmers.
Arla pays its farmers 23p for every litre of milk they produce – below the farmers’ cost price of between 30p and 32p a litre. Morrisons buys all its milk from Arla, but uses only milk supplied by British farmers.
A Morrisons spokesman said: «Currently the price that Arla pays for farmers’ milk is higher than its rivals in the UK and that is in part due to the effect of the extra money raised by Morrisons Milk for Farmers.
«About 3,000 farmers in the UK will benefit from these payments alongside their European counterparts.
«We worked extremely quickly to introduce Milk for Farmers at a time when farmers said they needed help. Very soon, we will make changes to the packaging to clarify that while this is British milk the extra payments are shared between all of Arla’s farmers.»
An Arla spokesman said: “Arla Foods is a farmer-owned dairy co-operative and as such, all revenue is shared equally amongst our farmer owners, across all owner countries, regardless of what market and product their milk is used for.
«Consequently, British farmers benefit from the sale of all products sold inside and outside of the UK marketplace. Retailers outside of the UK have similar initiatives to what we have in the UK and British farmers are benefiting from those.”
Source: Telegraph