The National Farmers Union has hit out at moves from leading UK dairies to cut the price they pay farmers for raw milk.
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Arla Foods has cut its payment to farmers by 2ppl while First Milk reduced payments to suppliers by 1.25ppl.
“It’s difficult to talk of partnership in the supply chain when companies act like this, exploiting the poor, one-sided contract with farmers,” NFU dairy board chairman Gwyn Jones said.
“We are particularly concerned that these price cuts come at a time when UK milk production has reached a crucial tipping point and when the cost of producing milk remains painfully high,” Jones continued.
Sources close to the situation told just-food that the price cuts were viewed as necessary in order for the dairy companies to remain competitive.
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By GlobalDataThe price of dairy commodities on the global market has dropped, while cheap imports – particularly of mild cheese from Ireland – have put pressure on the price of value added dairy products in the UK.
However, Jones dismissed these concerns.
“It’s hard to see the justification for any price cuts in liquid milk. I’m not blind to what’s happening on world and EU commodity markets and am well aware of the pressure being exerted on the cheese market by lower priced, lower quality imports, but for a large liquid milk processor such as Arla to drop its price so ruthlessly and then blame it on falling commodity prices is very surprising,” he said.
