A new body representing dairy producer organisations across Britain has been launched, in a move the NFU says could reshape how farmers and processors work together.
The Association of Dairy Producer Organisations (ADPO) was unveiled at UK Dairy Day and is the first of its kind in Britain.
It aims to provide a unified voice for members of registered Dairy Producer Organisations (DPOs) and to help farmers formalise and professionalise their relationships with milk buyers.
The new body is designed to create structured dialogue between producers and processors to address shared challenges and deliver industry priorities, including the UK dairy roadmap and targets on greenhouse gas emissions.
It also provides an alternative form of representation outside the traditional co-operative model, offering a platform for farmers supplying privately owned or listed milk buyers — a group that has often been underrepresented.
The initiative comes after years of calls for greater fairness in the dairy supply chain. The NFU has campaigned strongly on this issue, helping to secure the Fair Dealings Obligations (Milk) Regulations 2024, which came into effect in July last year to bring transparency and accountability to supply contracts.
NFU dairy board chair Paul Tompkins said the formation of the ADPO marked a “new start for a significant proportion of the UK milk pool in how they can achieve effective representation”.
He added: “It’s something that we’ve seen working across the Channel and envied for a number of years. The NFU has always been a supportive partner on this journey and will remain so moving forward.”
ADPO chair Rory Christie said the organisation had been a long time in the making and represented a “significant and positive moment for our industry”.
"Professionalising dairy farmer representation for those supplying private companies has been a long journey, but launching the ADPO is a significant and positive moment for our industry.
"We now have a robust governance framework capable of addressing the real-world challenges that dairy farmers and processors face together.
“Most importantly, this is a shared opportunity to understand what a successful, interdependent relationship should look like – and to build it, together," he said.
