Dairy farmers warn of more Shropshire blockades
Farming campaigners today warned they are just days away from staging fresh blockades outside the UK's biggest yoghurt factory in Shropshire after claiming bosses have refused to discuss fairer prices for milk.
David Handley, president of Farmers For Action (FFA), said dairy farmers would be protesting outside the Muller Wiseman plant in Market Drayton by the end of the week 'without a doubt'.
He said the situation was at a 'stalemate' as farmers continued to make a loss on every litre of milk they sold. Latest figures suggest it costs about 31.5 pence to produce each litre, but Muller currently pays 29p per litre.
The new threat of action comes after the FFA agreed to a 10-day ceasefire at a meeting with Muller bosses on October 26 – but campaigners said they would end their truce if the price offered by Müller had not increased by today.
Mr Handley said: "I would suggest that we are at an impasse.
"We have made a decision that if we have not had a concrete number from them in relation to the price they will pay for milk from December 1 by the end of the week we'll be protesting again. They have had the ultimatum."
But bosses at the dairy giant said any more protests would put local jobs at risk.
They said even the farmers who supplied the company had appealed to campaigners to call off protests.
A spokesman for Muller said: "We are extremely concerned and disappointed with this threat of further illegal militancy, which will place local jobs at risk and damage our business.
"Every truck that is unlawfully halted at Market Drayton can quickly be replaced by a container of dairy products from one of our European competitors.
"We are in on-going and active discussions with the dairy farmers elected to represent farmers who supply us. They have asked FFA to stop illegal blockades while this process continues."
