'I see light at end of the tunnel' - Shropshire farmer's cautious optimism

Andrew Bebb, who runs an organic dairy farm at Hanwood, near Shrewsbury, believes there is "light at the end of the tunnel" for dairy farmers, despite warnings of many quitting the industry in the spring.

He said: "Is there light at the end of the tunnel? I think there is.

"The global market has shown a slight upward trend, so I hope things start recovering.

"But even if things do recover, it will be a slow recovery as I don't think farm gate prices will increase by a great amount until the end of summer.

"There isn't a quick fix unfortunately, as one of the biggest problems is that we are still overproducing.

"We are producing three per cent more than this time last year.

"We are exceeding producing capacity which means producers are being offered milk from all quarters."

Mr Bebb added: "I suspect a lot of farmers will leave the industry in the spring. Farmers are losing money hand over fist and financially they can't afford to keep going with these prices.

"While we are in the situation with overproduction we are in a poor bargaining position.

"If we weren't overproducing we would be in a lot better position.

"The fear is there will be an even bigger surplus come the spring."

Mr Bebb has been campaigning for better milk prices over the last few years.

He took part in protests at supermarkets last year, where a number of dairy farmers bought cartons of milk and handed them out free to shoppers.

"We are getting so little for our milk that we may as well come here and give it away for free," he said at the time. The public has been so supportive of us."