After the SOS dairy campaign, the introduction of a voluntary code and continued dairy market volatility, dairy farmer representatives have the chance to debate the future of the industry this week at an NFU led summit.
The dairy Producer Representative Summit on Thursday April 11 will feature a number of industry leaders and cover a wide range of supply chain issues including the voluntary code for contracts, the registration of producer organisations and the dairy market place.
There will be an expert line up of speakers including NFU dairy board chairman Mansel Raymond, Defra head of dairy policy Richard Jones, AB-Agri commodity trader Hugh Burton, senior Promar consultant Derek Gardener and dairy futures specialist Liam Fenton of FC Stone.
Mansel Raymond welcomed the opportunity to discuss the big issues facing the dairy industry.
"This summit presents an important opportunity to support the role of producer representatives and farmers looking to form producer organisations," he said.
"The development of the Dairy Industry Code of Best Practice for contractual Relations places an even greater emphasis on the role of producer representatives in supply chain relationships. We believe it is vital they have all the right tools and information at their disposal.
"So this summit is an ideal opportunity to review the events of the past year, discuss issues like dairy markets, and empower dairy producer representatives to get the best deal for farmers in commercial negotiations."
