Milk campaign launch as price tension builds

Farmers for Action is launching a campaign following recent figures from the RABDF and NFU highlighting the huge gap between actual and sustainable milk price.

FFA leader David Handley has stirred tensions by suggesting that the UK farming unions are not doing enough to force the issue.

Most retailers, he said, say they have come under no pressure from the unions to address the disparity, although some had admitted they were aware of the figures.

And in the South West, the situation over milk price is threatening to boil over this Christmas as another campaign is launched. This comes hot on the heels of the NFU’s milk invoicing campaign.

NFU president Peter Kendall responded on Wednesday by saying the union had been talking extensively with retailers and had seen some positive reaction. He was extremely anxious that the industry was not seen to be divided over this issue.

“There is no way we want to be falling out with David Handley or anyone else, and we want the message from the industry to be strong and united in order to demonstrate that the current situation is unsustainable.”

He said the union had been instrumental in pressuring the OFT into referring the supermarkets to the Competition Commission.

“That is why we are encouraging farmers to give us that evidence in the form of their invoices,” he said.

Mr Handley too was keen that there should not be division among producers although he was aggrieved that the FFA appeared to be have been ‘excluded form the loop’ on the invoicing campaign.

Meanwhile, he addressed comments from some quarters that the FFA itself was doing nothing. “People say we have gone quiet. Well now we are planning action and I only hope that we can at last generate some support from producers.

“Next week we will be outside selected distribution depots and I can tell you the supermarkets are jumping through hoops right now because this sort of thing is what they do not want at this time of year,” said Mr Handley.

Mr Handley said he had had a positive response from the UK’s biggest retailer Tesco and Sainsbury’s this week. Both told him they would not shut the door on suppliers, telling them there was genuine pressure at supply level. They told him they would not ignore genuine documented evidence for a cost increase, he said.

“We are not, and would not ask them to break competition law, and we are not necessarily saying there needs to be a retail price increase – just that they pay more for their milk so the processors can pay the producers more.”

The South West campaign – aptly named ‘The Great Milk Robbery’ – aims to raise awareness among shoppers throughout the region about the real price of milk and questions whether the supermarkets are running a cartel.

This campaign, which got underway at the Royal Smithfield Christmas Fair, has been welcomed by lobby groups including the NFU.

A float, complete with young Devon farmers dressed up as cows, along with five foot high placards highlighting the profits of the supermarkets versus those at the farm gate, was driven into the Bath & West showground. It then made its way around the region, stopping at supermarkets.

The campaign is the brainchild of a South West dairy farmers’ wife Sally Dare.

“From a lobbying perspective it doesn’t harm or hinder your cause by having many different campaigns, provided they are all singing from the same hymn sheet,” said Tom Hind, chief dairy adviser for the NFU.

There have been suggestions the invoicing campaign is not making a big impact, but Mr Hind said response had accelerated over the weekend.