Muller defends September milk price and remains 'confident' it is competitive

A spokesman for Müller said milk prices for September will remain unchanged, and are "confident that they will continue to be competitive."

The response from the German dairy giant comes after the National Farmers Union demanded an explanation into Müller's September milk price reasoning.

The NFU called on Müller to explain why the company is not increasing it in line with 'extremely positive' market signals for UK milk prices to its suppliers.

NFU dairy board chairman Michael Oakes said that Müller’s non-aligned suppliers – estimated at around a third of its 1,900 farmer suppliers – would be frustrated that they were not seeing the benefits of a market that was starting to experience positive price movements after two years of downturn.

North of the border, NFU Scotland said the decision by Müller to ignore market signals is a "slap in the face" for its non-aligned producers who have endured "two years of falling prices".

'We did not expose farmers to very low returns'

The Müller spokesman said the organisation's aim is to deliver a "stable" and "competitive milk price".

"Where we differ from many other milk buyers in the UK is that throughout the crisis resulting from very high levels of milk supply and weak demand for commodity dairy products, our aim was to deliver a stable, competitive milk price on all litres bought from our farmer suppliers.

"We honoured our contract terms and did not expose our farmers to very low returns for excess milk from spot markets during this period by introducing A&B contracts.

"Whilst we agree with our Farmer Board that the markets are showing positive signals, we have a different view on when this can be translated into milk price.

"We are optimistic for the future and hopeful that we might see stronger returns for our business and the farmers who supply us soon."