Milk fight farmers 'won't target Shropshire's Muller dairy'
Farming campaigners will continue to fight for a better price for milk – but that fight may not come to Shropshire.
Farmers For Action has revealed that it will continue its campaign to get dairy farmers a fair price for their milk but protests are unlikely to be held in Market Drayton as they were last year.
The group said for the moment is has no reason to protest outside Market Drayton-based milk processing giant Muller, but action would continue elsewhere.
Leader of the group, David Handley, said: "We had a committee meeting and the decision was that there are a lot of people who are not are not seeing improvements. It is our intention through negotiation and protests to carry out a campaign in the run up to Christmas.
"At this moment in time Muller have increased the milk price and although it is a supplementary payment, they have not yet made an announcement for next month. If they continue in the way that they are and extract what they can from the supply chain for farmers, Muller will have no issue with Farmers For Action.
"But, if we see that money from the cream market which is doing well at the moment doesn't come back to farmers, then we obviously will come back to Market Drayton."
Earlier this week, dairy farmers in Shropshire joined others as they launched fresh protests against milk processing giants in Chester.
In its Christmas campaign, members will visit retailers, members of the food service industry and milk processors in a fresh effort to get a better deal for farmers. The action hopes to counter problems caused by cuts to the price processors pay their farmers for milk.
Industry leaders claim it costs around 30 pence per litre to produce, but many are losing money on each litre they make, with processors paying around 24ppl. Action has been ongoing over the past year at supermarkets which has seen a boost for some farmers.
A number of supermarkets agreed to pay 28ppl for milk which they hoped would be passed back to the farmer by the processor.
Morrisons agreed to pay processors a price of 26ppl and pledged to introduce cheese and milk products that will give cash back to farmers.
In a statement earlier this month, the group said its campaign ahead of Christmas would target retailers and processors that have "decided to do nothing". It added it will "put them under the spotlight" to show farmers will not sit back on the issue and will continue the fight.
