Farming unions to hold emergency summit over milk crisis

Farming unions to hold emergency summit over milk crisis
Farming unions to hold emergency summit over milk crisis

The NFU, NFU Scotland, NFU Cymru and the Ulster Farmers Union are due to meet for an emergency summit in London amid a national "crisis" over milk prices.

The unions assert the industry is in a crisis with some farmers losing almost 10p a litre and have called on UK farming ministers to face them and demand a solution.

They are calling on UK farming ministers to work together to address the problem.

Last weeks protests have included removing large quantities of milk from shops and supermarkets and blocking distribution centres.

Yesterday, a national "milk trolley challenge" saw farmers removing all cartons from shops including Morrisons and Lidl before paying for them and taking them away or dumping them at the checkout.

Supermarket giant Morrisons will bite the bullet and meet farming industry leaders on Tuesday to discuss the price crisis.

In a joint statement, the leaders of the farming unions said: "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 UK farmers reach their very real potential."