#UK dairies raise milk prices for farmers

Share on twitter
Share on facebook
Share on linkedin
Share on whatsapp
Share on email

Milk prices across the UK are set to reach record highs as two of the UK’s leading dairies announced they would pay farmers more than 30p for a litre of the white stuff.
Dairy Crest, maker of Utterly Butterly and Cathedral City cheddar, said it would pay 31.5p a litre to its farmers from June. The move comes in response to the rises in dairy market prices globally following low levels of milk production.
High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/854ca714-ac32-11e2-9e7f-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz2RO0Syvlf


Arla Foods, the Danish co-operative that makes Lurpak butter, has raised its price to 30.2p “as a result of improved business performance and increases in global commodity prices”.
Mansel Raymond, dairy board chairman for the National Farmers’ Union, said the price increases were long overdue. “It’s a help and a step in the right direction, and should set the tone for other major buyers to move quickly”, he said.
However, he added that with the average cost of production above 32p a litre, many farmers would remain under pressure in the months ahead, adding that it was a disappointment Dairy Crest’s increases would only come into effect from June rather than May.
This week dairy farmers blockaded two Wm Morrison depots after concerns that First Milk, a cheese supplier to supermarkets, would lower the prices paid to milk producers.
The latest price rises come a year after producers banded together to protest as farmgate milk prices hit 26p in June and UK dairy processors proposed further cuts.
Since then poor weather across the EU, UK and US has hit milk production, forcing dairy prices to rise globally. A bad winter in Europe and dry weather in Australia and New Zealand have disrupted key global dairy producers.
UK farmgate milk prices averaged 29.99p a litre in February – touching new highs for the industry.
Earlier this month, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation said unusually large rises in dairy prices had been the cause of a 1 per cent increase in its food price index during March.
The UK experienced its coldest March for more than 50 years, which stopped farmers putting herds out to grass and forcing them to buy in extra feed. Unseasonal weather has also increased the price of wheat feed, which now costs a fifth more than it did a year ago.
David Handley, chairman of Farmers for Action, which was active in milk price protests last summer, said rising feed costs were pushing farmers back into crisis conditions, while supermarkets continued to enjoy high margins on cheese.
A voluntary code of best practice intended to improve conditions for producers was launched in October, but the NFU said it had yet to be adopted across the industry, with about 15 per cent of processors yet to agree to it.
 
Source: Financial Times

Mirá También

Así lo expresó Domingo Possetto, secretario de la seccional Rafaela, quien además, afirmó que a los productores «habitualmente los ignoran los gobiernos». Además, reconoció la labor de los empresarios de las firmas locales y aseguró que están «esperanzados» con la negociación entre SanCor y Adecoagro.

Te puede interesar

Notas
Relacionadas