Agricultural Minister 'needs to get a grip' as farmers plan further protests

The NFU also estimates that only around 10 per cent of dairy farmers are on contracts that track farmers’ cost of production.
The NFU also estimates that only around 10 per cent of dairy farmers are on contracts that track farmers’ cost of production.

Morrisons are not prepared to negotiate anything whilst being targeted by farmers, according to Farmers' for Action Chairman David Handley.

The group said it was planning more protests in the wake of further cuts made to prices paid for milk.

"This is going to be a protest with a twist. There will be something for everyone to be involved in, it will not be about just standing talking to your neighbour, but it will be totally peaceful.

"I think a line has been drawn in the sand and am sure I speak on behalf of the majority of farmers when I say we are not going to be bullied by British retailers. All we want is a fair price, a living wage and be able to make a profit from our business, no different than any other corporate business, whether it be British retailing or British food service industry.

For Morrisons to start saying that they are not going to be threatened into price increasing tells me they are not listening to the message. Their own customers, the great British public are telling them they are prepared to pay more to keep British farming profitable and going forward, Morrisons need to realise we are an island with 63m people, other than exotics we could be totally self sufficient but retailers and the food service sector seem to think that food is all about profit, for them and no one else," said Handley.

In recent meetings with the retailer, the NFU outlined the pressures affecting dairy farmers, especially the unsustainable milk price being received on farm.

NFU President Meurig Raymond said: “While Morrisons recently confirmed it is not accepting any further cost price decreases from their suppliers, I don’t feel that this goes far enough in these desperate times. I wish to see the retailer develop transparent pricing mechanisms, and long term relationships with their suppliers, that show support to the British dairy sector.

“We will be continuing discussions with Morrison’s in the coming weeks and we will keep pushing them to develop support mechanisms that work for them and the industry.

“Now we need to ensure that Morrisons’ performance on dairy delivers for British farmers as they already do on red meat and poultry.”

FFA Chairman said: "Our Prime Minister and Agricultural Minster need to get a grip of who is running this country, who is controlling British food output, is it the farmer and politicians or is it the likes of Morrisons?

"If farmers will not stand together, what we are going to see happen is smaller groups breaking away, not through greed but through desperation and therefore French tactics are going to take place, whether we like it or we don't."

The dairy, lamb and arable sectors in particular are seeing serious challenges. Official figures show that the number of dairy farmers in England and Wales has gone down constantly over the time. Since January 2015, 236 farmers have left the dairy sector and the trend look set to continue.

The NFU also estimates that only around 10 per cent of dairy farmers are on contracts that track farmers’ cost of production.

Most of the remaining dairy farmers are selling milk below the cost of production. And on lamb, while total Imports of lamb have decreased by 2 per cent from January to May 2015 compared to same period in 2014, imports of New Zealand lamb are up by 2.8 per cent. This is significant because New Zealand lamb accounts for 77 per cent of all lamb imports to the UK. In the arable sector, rapeseed, feed wheat and barley growers are also receiving less than the cost of production.

Against this current background, the Presidents of the NFU, NFU Scotland, Ulster Farmers’ Union and NFU Cymru have announced an emergency summit of farming organisations on Monday. They are calling for farming ministers to recognise the seriousness of the problems facing many farming sectors and to work together to find urgent and practical solutions to address them.

In a joint statement the UK farming unions said: “We recognise that some of the problems our members face are the result of world market conditions. We also believe that some of the solutions also lie at EU level which is why the UK farming unions will be attending the emergency Council of Agriculture Ministers on September 7 in Brussels. At that emergency meeting, UK ministers need to visibly back British and UK farmers.

“However, we are in no doubt that the current issues are exacerbated by factors unique to the UK. These include dysfunctional supply chains, the predominance of the major retailers and subsequent retailer price war, pressure on markets from New Zealand lamb imports. And while fresh liquid milk makes up 50% of the dairy market there is an urgent need for more value added dairy processing capacity for the rest of the milk produced so that farmers can turn their focus to producing milk for value added products such as cheese and butter.

“Ultimately we need to be in a situation where farm businesses have sustainable incomes that allow them to reinvest and remain competitive so while recent developments like the proposal for tax averaging and a more stable Annual Income Allowance are welcome, more immediate fiscal solutions are also now needed to help with the current cash-flow issues facing many farmers, including introducing more flexibility on loss reliefs.

“UK farmers do have the potential to play an enormous part in the economic recovery of the UK and, at the same time, to provide much more of the food the country needs. Therefore we call on the UK farming ministers to meet jointly with us as soon as possible to identify what they can do to alleviate the very serious problems facing our industry and help the UK farmers reach their very real potential.”