Are Farmers Milking It?

Dairy farmers are protesting over the price they are paid by supermarkets for their milk.

17:36 05 August 2015

Dairy farmers are protesting at supermarkets in some parts of the UK over the price they are paid for their milk. They have been clearing supermarket shelves, buying milk in bulk, and giving it away for free. They said that some of them have gone out of business as they are being paid less than it costs to produce the milk.

 

West Midlands dairy farmer Michael Oakes, from the National Farmers' Union (NFU), said: "We've got to the point where we're getting an unsustainable price for our milk.

 

"I'm getting paid 24p (per litre) and it's costing me 28p to produce. So we thought we'd go along to the retailer, we've bought the milk and we're going to give it away to the consumer and explain why."

 

Meanwhile, a Sainsbury's spokesman said: "Our retail price is not related to the price we pay our farmers. Our milk prices are competitive for our customers, while also paying our dedicated dairy farmers a fair price that protects them against volatile markets."

 

Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, said shops were not to blame.

 

"The global market at the moment is over supplied, we haven't seen the pick up in demand that we might have expected from places like China and India which were growing quite rapidly," he said.

 

"So until that picks up there will be problems. But it's absolutely wrong to look at retailers here. Retailers are actually doing the right thing - they are paying the best prices - but these are global conditions outside their control."