Recent cuts in farm-gate milk price, by numerous milk buyers, surfaced as the main topic of concern when NFU Cymru’s Milk Board members met senior representatives’ of one of the UK’s largest milk processing companies, Robert Wiseman, who has cut its milk price by 2pence per litre.
Speaking after the meeting, which took place recently at Droitwich, NFU Cymru Milk Board Chairman Aled Jones said, ’This was another opportunity for us to express the anger and dismay of our dairy farming members at these cuts. Simply passing the pain of unsustainable wholesale and retail dairy product prices back to farmers via the raw milk price is totally unsustainable and farmers simply cannot stand price cuts of this severity.
"In our view, milk buyers can only get away with this type of milk price cut because of weak contracts. Buyers have the discretion to change a farmers key terms, yet the farmer is tied by a long notice period. As farmers we desperately need more balanced contracts, where price is determinable or we have a say in its determination.
"Another practice that must stop is the constant undercutting that milk processors do to each other in the market to gain market share, which results in liquid milk being sold at a loss. This is just simply unsustainable and lets down farmers, who need to be making long term investment decisions."
Mr Jones ended, "We’ve made it perfectly clear to the dairy processing sector that their recent behaviour is totally unacceptable and that the days of buyers retaining complete discretion to change a farmer’s milk price must be put behind us by the terms of a voluntary code or by legislation. We are also seeking assurance from Governments at all levels that there will definitely be a change to farmer’s basic terms and conditions in dairy contracts, redressing the balance of power with fairer contracts."
