A north-east dairy farmer is backing calls for shoppers to buy more Scottish dairy produce in a bid to help save the industry.
According to Bruce Mackie, who runs a dairy farm at Middleton of Rora, near Peterhead, the number of dairy farmers in Aberdeenshire has more than halved in the past 15 years.
Addressing councillors from Aberdeenshire, Moray and Angus councils this week, Mr Bruce said the number of producers supplying the main dairy in the north-east – Muller Wiseman – had fallen to 48, from 117 in 2000.
He urged the councillors to ensure local government was buying Scottish dairy produce, and called on members of the public to buy more Scottish dairy produce.
“I wonder what local government pays for milk,” said Mr Mackie.
“Aberdeenshire goes on about being fair trade. Is it fair trade about its milk?”
Last week the Press and Journal launched a campaign to help struggling dairy farmers.
Jean McLean, who milks 170 cows at Mains of Culsh near New Deer, said every time the milk price dropped by a penny, her business lost £14,000.
Like most dairy farmers she is producing milk at a loss – she gets paid 25.9p for a litre of milk, despite the fact it costs more than 30p a litre to produce.
A combination of supermarkets devaluing milk and global market factors has been blamed for the poor prices received by farmers.
Traditionally farmers would have protested outside milk processing plants and supermarket depots to get their message across, but instead the Scottish dairy industry is rallying together to promote more consumption of milk.
Gary Mitchell, who heads up the milk committee at the National Farmers Union of Scotland, said farmers were planning to go out and meet members of the public to tell them the benefits of buying Scottish and British dairy produce.
He said: “Over the last few weeks I have spoken to many dairy farmers who have raised concerns on what the future holds.
“The current volatile price swings are hugely challenging for farmers but some self-promotion of our products, ensuring that they are increasingly sought out by our loyal consumers could help strengthen returns to the sector, particularly at this difficult time.”