NFU sends out plea to retailers over falling milk prices

With mounting concern over the falling milk prices on global markets, NFU Cymru Milk Board Chairman, Aled Jones, sent out a plea to processors, retailers and policy makers in the UK and the EU to work together to safeguard a future for milk producers, at a recent NFU on farm meeting in Glamorgan.

The well attended county meeting was hosted by the Reader family, who have shown their commitment to the dairy industry by investing heavily in a 20/20 milking parlour complete with electronic ID for feed control and yield monitoring.

Abi Reader, Glamorgan NFU Cymru County Chairman said, “With milk becoming an increasingly volatile industry we know we must focus on progressive and achievable targets to improve the performance of the herd. Investing in infrastructure and technology is key to this. We are very thankful to have a cost of production contract with Sainsbury’s offering some financial stability during this period. We need to see more farmers being offered the opportunity to be able to manage price volatility through similar contract types.”

Aled Jones said, “We are all in this industry together. We are trying to make Governments at all levels understand that agricultural is a long term industry requiring long-term policies. Projects such as this dairy unit at Goldlands farm is a long term investment and it is encouraging to see the Reader family’s commitment to the sector.

“There has been a spike in production on a global level and the commodity markets have struggled. The Union is holding regular meetings with all of the main retailers and processors to hold them to account to ensure that any price rises are reflected in farm gate prices. We are presently monitoring retailers and processors for evidence of exploiting the weak global market to bring down the domestic home market. There will be a continual push for retailers to set up dedicated milk pools for cheese as well as liquid.

“Following comments made in the review of the Voluntary Code we will seek an increased adoption of the code by processors and to expand further up the food chain to include retailers and food service providers.”

John Davies, NFU Cymru Deputy President, also present at the meeting reaffirmed the view that farmers are all in the industry together and emphasised the need to stand together. John Davies said, “All we want is a fair price for what we produce. We know consumers want to British produce and it is more important now than ever that consumers see home produced food taking pride of place on the retailers’ shelves.”