'We are committed to paying a fair price': Read Muller boss' open letter to Shropshire farmers

I want to set out a bit more context around our milk pricing position.

As one of our valued direct suppliers it's important to me and my colleagues within Müller's UK business that you hear this directly, and not through the rhetoric of others not associated with us.

• MORE: Dozens of farmers turn out at latest Muller protest

Building Britain's biggest and best dairy business:

The strategy which we are pursuing is well established. We are investing more than any other dairy business in the UK to build a diverse and successful dairy company.

We place emphasis on adding value to milk and are doing this through acquisitions, strengthening our presence in existing categories, entering new sectors of the dairy category, innovation throughout our supply chain and product development. Being a diverse and well invested dairy business means greater protection from the extremes of a boom and bust commodity cycle. You, as a valued supplier, benefit from a milk price which is both stable and competitive in a market which is characterised by extreme volatility.

A fair and competitive milk price:

Our commitment to offering you a competitive milk price at every point in the market cycle is underpinned by a simple, straightforward contract.

As the past few months have shown, our milk price doesn't track the extremes of the spot market.

During this difficult period, many of our competitors introduced contract variances at short notice which exposed their farmer suppliers to spot market returns which were as low as 7p per litre.

Given that this is the route they chose it is only right that they immediately reflect the changes in spot market values as the market begins to recover. But I would stress that whilst these increases are headline grabbing, they are only moving these competitor milk prices closer, on an average basis, to the price we pay you, our farmers.

I have published some price comparisons that demonstrates that our average non-aligned milk price over the past year has been above the average of our milk and ingredient competitors. There is an even greater differential when compared to the less transparent pricing mechanisms of many milk purchasers.

The fact that dairy markets are improving is very welcome news for us all. This will translate into higher milk prices.

However the timing is dependent on when we actually realise these higher returns within our business.

Your milk price:

We know that what really matters to you isn't headline milk pricing but the actual price you get in your milk cheque each month. Our farmers on our non-aligned contracts receive additional support as a result of the customers we supply.

We offer a competitive standard milk price and in addition a retailer supplement.

We show this supplement separately to be transparent, so that you can see how it benefits your total monthly price paid.

This is a very different approach from competitors who also receive this supplement from retailers but choose simply to incorporate it, and other retailer group premiums into their standard milk price, which is similar to ours.

As a result your actual returns are significantly higher and we as a business are paying more for the milk that we buy.

Working in partnership:

I appreciate the importance of milk price and the need to build confidence for the future at farm level. Through the agriculture team we continue to work in partnership with your MMG farmer board, who robustly represent you and highlight the real financial pressure on farmers.

This is a professional process which we value. I firmly believe that this approach between partners who understand each other's businesses is the way forward.

I note that your farmer board has been criticised by those who have no involvement or understanding of our business.

Let me give you my perspective.

This board works extremely hard on your behalf. They represent you with real passion and they ensure that we fully understand your perspective. They do so with little reward or recognition. The result of this work and the partnership approach is there for all to see and can be shown in the long term success of the contract proposition which we offer and our stable competitive milk price.

Any work that is on-going with our farmer board is always halted when we are being threatened by illegal activity by third party farmer organisations at our sites.

Notwithstanding the need to manage disruption to employees, customers and farmers, illegality is serious and not an appropriate environment in which any meaningful discussions can take place.

Collecting your milk during periods of disruption:

It is important that I make you aware of the implications of our sites being blockaded. We are confident that our supplying farmers are not the ones who are turning up at our dairies intent on illegally seeking to halt operations, as opposed to peaceful protesting which we have no issue with. It is a little ironic that some of our most vocal critics have been looking to join us as suppliers.

We will do everything we can to maintain our milk collection service to you – but under these circumstances this cannot be guaranteed.

I therefore want to alert you to the possibility of delayed or missed collections in advance and apologise if there is any inconvenience.

We will of course take whatever means we can to protect our business from any disruption that could add cost or impact the service we provide to you, our customers and, therefore, our ultimate consumers.

I would like to thank you again for your support and to reiterate my desire to continue to develop this business and our partnership with you in the future.