UK supermarket chains are overcharging consumers for milk and underpaying dairy farmers, according to Phil Hudson, chief dairy adviser to the National Farmers’ Union (NFU).
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Hudson insisted: “There’s a gap between farm gate prices and the retail price. What happens between the milk leaving the farm and getting to the retailers?”
Over the last year, the price paid to farmers for milk has fallen from about 20p to about 14p a litre, while consumer prices have remained constant at around 45p per litre. Some farmers are receiving about 5p per litre less than it costs to produce the milk.
Supermarkets have been blamed for perpetuating the situation, but many insist that the prices are controlled by middlemen.
A spokesman for grocery giant Sainsbury’s admitted that “we recognise the unprecedented and acute financial position of many milk producers”. He stated however, “we do not believe that cutting the retail price of milk would boost sales”.
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By GlobalDataTesco stressed: “We buy our milk from dairies rather than farmers and have no control over the price they receive. However, we are doing all we can to help farmers.”
The Express newspaper was not convinced: “The supermarkets bleat that it’s not their fault, that it’s the middle men in the form of the dairies who are not passing on price benefits – as if the supermarkets themselves have no say in negotiating the price of the products for which they pay.
“This is the kind of profiteering that would even have raised a blush on the cheek of a Twenties gangster.
“The supermarkets can twitter, witter and stutter as much as they want about the dairies but it boils down to this: their actions are a complete disgrace.”
UK environment minister Elliot Morley described the plight of the farmers as “unsustainable” yesterday [Monday].
