Notice board

Milk price announcements were more subdued in July than in previous months, albeit still negative for the most part. In the aligned liquid contracts Tesco and Waitrose continued to hold on their price in July, while M&S announced the largest drop of the month at -2.17ppl. Co-op and Sainsbury’s dropped their July milk price by -0.93ppl and -0.81ppl respectively.

On non-aligned liquid contracts Payne’s and Graham’s dairies announced no change to their milk price for the month, while Crediton and Muller Direct, who both held their prices in June, announced a drop of 2ppl for July, in line with declines also announced by Freshways and BV Dairy. Yew Tree Dairy gave a smaller price decline of 1ppl for July.

The announced changes to cheese contracts were in line with those from liquid contracts. Glanbia, Belton, Wyke Farms and South Caernarfon Creameries held their price in July with Lactalis and Wensleydale Creamery announcing only small declines of -0.31ppl and -0.59ppl respectively. Barbers and Parkham Farms made the largest changes within cheese contracts down -2.06ppl and -1.75ppl respectively for the month, while Saputo and First Milk dropped their July milk price by 1ppl. Announcements on manufacturing contracts followed those of cheese contracts with Arla dropping their July price by -1.71ppl and Meadow Foods down -0.5ppl for the month.

Looking at the snapshot of price changes that have been announced for August so far, it appears that we may begin to see some stability in milk prices as we approach autumn, however demand will remain a key watch point to support this.

The milk price changes may not be fully reflected in the AHDB League Table.