Morrisons have contacted Farmers' For Action President David Handley and a discussion took place regarding recent activities that have been taken place around the country regarding Morrisons reluctance to bring money for cheese to the table.
It has been decided between both parties to hold a meeting on Tuesday 1 September with both Morrisons and the NFU in respect of the current crisis in the dairy industry.
The meeting has been scheduled for 10 am on Tuesday morning and Morrisons have been left under no illusion that it is not a meeting just to talk, we have to come out with money for hard pressed dairy farmers.
Farmers and union leaders are co-operating with supermarket bosses from Morrisons in a pursuit to resolve a crisis about the price of milk.
The unions say dairy farmers are struggling to stay in business because of a steep decline in the amount they are paid.
David Handley, chairman at Farmers for Action, said last week: “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 the British foodservice industry.”
New milk brand
Morrisons said it will launch a new milk brand where ten pence-per-litre of the retail price will go directly to dairy farmers.
The new brand “Morrisons Milk for Farmers” will go into all stores in the autumn and is aimed at shoppers who want to directly support dairy farmers. It will sit alongside Morrisons standard-priced own brand milk in the dairy aisle.
Morrisons’ Corporate Services Director Martyn Jones said: “We recognise that the current market for liquid milk is impacting on hardworking dairy farmers and their families. We want to reassure the industry that the retail price we charge for Morrisons milk reflects the highly competitive retail market. It is not linked to the price we pay our milk suppliers.
“We want to offer practical help by launching a range of 4-pint milk at a retail premium of 10p per litre, all of which will be passed back directly to dairy farmers. We will stock this product in all our stores, offering our customers the choice to support dairy farmers directly.”
Morrisons is also today giving more details of how it pays for milk from its majority supplier Arla, which buys milk from farmers.
Martyn Jones said: “We also want to clarify that our current three year contract with Arla, who supply the majority of our milk, uses a cost model that automatically adjusts the price that we pay for milk, based on a combination of the independently set farmgate price and other commodities such as diesel and plastics that influence the cost of milk.
“We can confirm that we have asked our milk suppliers not to pass on further decreases in the current farmgate price to us, but to share any benefit with the dairy farmer instead.”
