Notice board

On behalf of NFUS, Head of Policy Team, Gemma Cooper recently attended a joint UK Unions meeting on milk where the current milk price falls and the market situation were discussed. NFU Scotland Milk Committee chair Gary Mitchell said: “The significant and substantial falls in farmgate prices for milk announced in the past few weeks are a big disappointment to Scottish dairy farmers, who are bracing themselves for further falls this spring whilst still facing unprecedented levels of cost for feed, fertiliser, fuel, and electricity.

“Recent price announcements include Arla (-2.65p per litre (ppl) from February); First Milk (-4ppl from March); Grahams Dairies (-2ppl from February); Muller Directs ( -3ppl from March) with more negative movements from other Scottish milk buyers expected this spring.

“The global commodity market for dairy products has collapsed and is now trading at a value equivalent to the low 30’s in terms of pence per litre.  The futures market for dairy products hit a 69-week low last week but has started to stabilise and is currently rising slowly so all dairy farmers will be hoping that this downward spiral will be short lived at UK level.

“Faced with such severe volatility in farmgate prices and input costs, we now need retailers more than ever to deliver stability and support to our industry to guarantee milk supplies.  Regardless of whether supplying fresh milk, cheese or other dairy produce markets, all dairy farmers need confidence to invest for the future.  That investment is essential to keeping dairy products on the shop shelves but also needed if we are to deliver on our aspirations to tackle climate challenges at farm level.”