Scots dairy farmers have been dealt another “bitter blow” with news First Milk is cutting its milk price once more.
The Glasgow-headquartered farmers’ co-operative has been at the centre of the current milk crisis – in January it was forced to delay payments to farmers due to cash flow problems.
Since then the milk price paid to its suppliers has been on a downward spiral.
The latest cut, which takes effect on September 1, will see a 0.2p a litre reduction in the balancing milk pool price, and a 0.3p a litre reduction in the manufacturing milk pool price.
NFU Scotland’s milk committee chairman Graeme Kilpatrick described the latest cuts as a “bitter blow for First Milk producers” and said it would further widen the gap between the price they are paid and the price they needed to keeping milking cows.
He warned the recent milk price pledges from supermarkets were not the silver bullet needed to fix the sector and said they would only benefit a small proportion of dairy farmers.
“The public should be under no illusion that the recent movement by some retailers to put a floor on price of milk going into the liquid milk market, while welcome, will only benefit a relatively small number of producers,” said Mr Kilpatrick.
“There has been little or no commitment from supermarkets to deliver sustainable prices into the rest of their dairy category that includes cheese, butter, cream and yogurts. That is an area that would benefit a company like First Milk. When the wholesale price of cheese has fallen by more than 30% on the year, the public would be astonished to know that the price on the shelf has changed little.”
He said NFU Scotland would continue to meet retailers and others in the food chain to try and secure a fundamental change in relationships that will “deliver a fairer share of risk and reward between retailers, processors and farmers across all products”.