Farm crisis talks as milk price cut hits profits
Dairy farmers in Shropshire could be forced to quit the industry amid concerns for its future, it was claimed today following an emergency meeting.
Dairy farmers in Shropshire could be forced to quit the industry amid concerns for its future, it was claimed today following an emergency meeting.
It comes after Robert Wiseman Dairies announced a cut in the price it will pay for milk.
Concerns were raised at an emergency meeting with representatives from the National Farmers Union yesterday.
Farmers claimed they were being forced to ‘give away’ their produce and fear other companies will follow Wiseman’s lead.
The dairy firm announced last week it was cutting 1.7p per litre in the price it pays farmers for milk from August 1. It follows a 2p per litre cut last month.
About half a dozen farmers met the NFU’s regional director, John Mercer.
“There is a lot of anger about the price cut and a very real concern for the future of farming,” Mr Mercer said. “The concern is how many dairy farmers we are going to have left in the industry in the next six months. Our views have been passed to the national dairy board.
“We have discussed ways forward but we need to know what other processors will do, what this leads to and if it is a sustainable business.”
There are 449 dairy farmers in Shropshire, according to figures by Dairy Co, but it is not known how many supply Robert Wiseman.
The Glasgow-based company was brought out by Muller, based in Market Drayton, in a £280 million deal in January.
Comments for: "Farm crisis talks as milk price cut hits profits"
Port Hill Boy
Farming is a business just like any other.
Farmers should accept that market forces apply.
That's capitalism !
The Original Jake
If capitalism is so great, why do we need market regulation?
Just my random thought for the day.
Colin.Dodd.
What a crass comment to make.
Yes, market forces do apply, as dictated by Muller apparently.
I am not 100% sure of the exact figures, but I believe that farmers will be getting about 21p per litre, for milk that costs about 30p per litre to produce.
Maybe PHB will be just as carefree if all the dairy farmers went arable, and Muller had to import milk. Perhaps he would be happy paying, possibly, double the price he now pays for milk.
Capitalism????? I think not, more like profiteering. There should be some government legislation on this.
Port Hill Boy
I can see you're not familiar with irony....
Johnboy
Why are people happy to buy bottled water at silly money that takes very little to produce, and costs very little from the tap in comparison, yet moan about the price of milk which as so much more uses and costs much more to produce?
milkman
even though muller bought out rwd they are staying as two different enterties,within rwd there are over 250 dairy farms. They are droping the price because they havent reached their profit targets at the end of the day they still made a profit but want to make more so the farmers are going to suffer
ian
farmers get that many subsidies it's time they started to earn the money they get after all no body forced them into that type of work.
dairy farmer
Farmers across Europe get the same subsidy, Uk farmers get less than you think but lets take them away. Then when the price of food will double at least there will be a drastic drop in availability. Inflation was blamed on food increases last year, simply because of shortages and real prices having to be paid .
So end subsidies now and watch people like you realize the mess we are in
dairy farmer
sainsbury pay 30.25 p/litre because they have farmer input costings{independant auditors on farm supply them} . wiseman have dedicated farms suppliers to tesco at 29.3p/litre .The supermarkets want traceability, but non dedicated suppliers have had prices reduced by 0.5p in feb ,2p on 1st of june a further 2p in august . Market forces have nothing to do with it , arla have cut the price today by 2p aswell citing wiseman have a cheaper inputs giving them a marketing advantage. Any other industry would say the processors are operating a cartel, as they dont price fix with each other they only signal their intentions to each other wich is legal....