Dairy Crest puts price of milk up for shopkeepers
Milk giant Dairy Crest is raising the price of the milk it supplies to shopkeepers by 4p a litre – while cutting the amount it pays farmers.
Milk giant Dairy Crest is raising the price of the milk it supplies to shopkeepers by 4p a litre – while cutting the amount it pays farmers.
The company – which made a £10.1m loss last year – is increasing the price to shops, while cutting 1.65p a litre from the the farm gate price.
Jeremy Lowe, NFU dairy advisor, said: “This just sums up the big difference between being a price maker and a price taker and it will outrage dairy farmers.”
But today Dairy Crest said it was working on plans to offset the impact of milk price cuts on farmers.
The group said measures would include the introduction of a new code of practice for milk supply contracts.
Dairy Crest is appearing in front of MPs today to face questions on the crisis.
The group said its milk price cuts had “put pressure on our supplying farmers and we are working with them on plans to reduce the impact of these cuts”.
In May, the firm cut 2p a litre off the price it pays to farmers who supply its milk, and will impose a further cut of 1.65p per litre on August 1.
Farmers will receive around 26p per litre – while spending 30p to produce it.
Colin Gornall, commercial director for Dairy Crest, blamed cost pressures. The company will also add two pence to the cost of UHT milk and cream and 10 per cent to the cost of eggs.
Comments for: "Dairy Crest puts price of milk up for shopkeepers"
Port Hill Boy
Welcome to the world of unfettered free enterprise.
How any Tory MPs have the effrontery to challenge Dairy Crest is beyond me. They are the party that champions big business.
Welshpool Boy
and the actions taken by the labour government in the preceeding years before the coalition took over were?
This situation has been ongoing for a very long time......politicians of all parties have failed on this one..
Kat de Gam,a
Farmers need to play every trick in the protest toolbox. Don't poor milk and eggs away. Take them to the complicit supermarkets and give them ,away for free. The public will support you and put money in your collection buckets. Best of luck.
Port Hill Boy
"The public will support you and put money in your collection buckets."
No I won't.
Where are the dairy farmers when factories, mines, shops etc close down? Never once have I heard the NFU expressing any support for them. What goes round comes round.
H. St. John Peasbody
I don't think I've ever read such utter garbage.
Wile Coyote
Really? Do you not reread your own posts then?
Fiona
That could be a good idea it would leave the milk and eggs on the supermarket shelves.
Sammy
"Stand and deliver" springs to mind!!!!!!!
ernie and his milkfloat
black mark for clover, cathedral city cheese etc all owned by dairy crest and boycotted by me. only tesco, sainsburys and marks and spencers are paying dairy farmers a living wage. co-op, asda etc are now boycotted by me.
the problem is a worldwide glut of milk caused by overproduction by argentina, australia and new zealand. new zealand farmers can produce a litre of milk 35% cheaper than british farmers.
to give our farmers a chance, they have had to spend £thousands modernising their milk parlours, all middle men and supermarkets must pay farmers 33p a litre, even if the final product has to increase in price. failure to do this will mean more boycotts for wiseman dairies, dairy crest products, asda, alta, waitrose, co-op, lidl etc
Kat de Gama
@ Porthill and Peasbody.... My comment was inspired by a Melbourne based campaign in support of pizza delivery drivers whose pay was cut (yes there is a branch in S'bury). Supporters handed out beautiful free homemade food outside the restaurant!!! Certainly, the stunt attracted a lot of publicity.
Mike
I can see the sense in that even if Porthill or is that Portill? and Harold cannot?
Bill
A principle of sensible consumer economics is that pricing throughouts supply chain should be either demand led or supply led.
It flies in the face of all common sense for somebody in the middle of the supply chain to be allowed to push their margins in both directions.
Unfortunately, the processors believe they have a stranglehold on the process - but if one of them breaks ranks and says to the supermarkets 'sorry, the milk price is going up by 5%' will the customers desert those chains? How many customers LOOK at the price of milk as they fill their trollies? Driving extra miles just to get your 4 pint carton for a few pence less will never happen.