Money still continues to come down the supply chain, although some milk processors seem to be very slow at delivering it to hard hit dairy farmers. Pressure is being applied on a daily basis to everyone in the supply chain that more money is needed and needed urgently.
Morrisons
Farmers for Action said "No money has yet been forthcoming to Lactalis milk suppliers or any information regarding what the amounts may be.
"Surely they have had enough time now to work out what their October milk price will be. You would also beg the question, why has the so called Producer Group led by Rory Christie not contacted all its members to give them a progress report. If this is how POs are going to work in the future, i.e. not communicating with its membership then I think they are dead in the water."
"Some members tell me they have not heard from the Group's committee for over 18 months, not a good advert for a PO going forward. Here is a unique opportunity to show how a PO does work as we have got the money from Morrisons, they should be on a daily basis bombarding Lactalis - where is the money and how much? If they can't do this simple operation and get it back to its members, we say what is the point in the Group at all?"
First Milk
The announcement by Tesco and First Milk, which will see First Milk producers who supply the Haverfordwest creamery receive a higher payment through Tesco’s Winter Supplement scheme has been described by NFU Cymru as a step in the right direction.
Aled Jones, NFU Cymru’s Milk Board Chairman said, “With the vast majority of milk in Wales produced for cheese NFU Cymru has long argued for dedicated supply chain relationships in the cheese sector, in a similar way to those that we have seen developed in the liquid milk sector. We hope that this is the fore-runner to a longer term dedicated relationship between Tesco, First Milk and farmers.”
Farmers for Action said they were 'disappointed' that First Milk, a farmer owned Co-op, decided all the money achieved from Tesco on milk for cheese, has gone to one group of farmers.
"Our thoughts would have been as a Co-op the money should have been shared by all as all members would have contributed to building the factories. FFA does not feel it can get involved in this issue as this is surely between the First Milk Co-op members and ultimately their farmer board, but we have expressed our concerns to both Adams Foods and Tesco about the way this money has been distributed."
Adams Foods
A meeting was held this week with Adams Foods in relation to the cheese market, all those present at the meeting were generally satisfied that what we were told was as near as accurate of the current situation.
"We will continue to work with Adams through dialogue going forward over the coming weeks, to make sure any monies recovered from the current price increases from retailers and food service industry gets back to the primary producer," said Farmers for Action.
Retailers
Meetings continue to be held on an almost daily basis with retailers and the food service sector to attempt to extract more money into the supply chain.
Current meetings have been with Iceland, Asda, Tesco. More meetings over the next week to 10 days with Sainsburys, Tesco again and others.
Milk processors
There are dialogues with milk processors on a regular basis. This week meetings were held with Meadow Foods, and others are planned in the coming weeks.
"We know for some things out there are very difficult but talks are essential to achieve the end goal which is to get money. Just protesting for the sake of a night out will not achieve anything, there has to be a purpose. But we are sure in coming weeks we will be calling on farmers again to show support for protest as some of the above seem reluctant to either ask for increases or if they have got them from their customers are reluctant to hand them over."
