Morrisons and The Co-operative Move on Milk
UK retailer Morrisons is to increase the premium it pays on milk to farmers and will also introduce support payments for farmers affected by the current bad weather. The move will increase the payments made by Morrisons to dairy farmers to 6p-a-litre.
Morrisons will pay an additional 2p-a-litre premium for every litre of milk that it buys. There will also be an additional support payment equivalent to 3p-a-litre because of the extreme weather that is currently affecting farmers. These payments will last from August through to the end of October when they will be reviewed.
Richard Hodgson, commercial director of Morrisons, says: “We recognise the exceptional pressure on farmers currently and continue to aim to support all farmers not just those that have dedicated contracts. The recent announcements by our processors will reduce the payment to farmers for the milk we sell and therefore we are announcing payments that negate their impact.”
Peter Kendall, president of the National Farmers Union, comments: “We’re really pleased to see Morrisons response to the calls from a coalition of farming groups to reverse the announced price reductions and address the exceptional costs dairy farmers are now facing. We need a long-term solution that addresses the need for a sustainable raw milk supply into the future. It’s now critical that other retailers and major buyers of milk respond to the responsible steps Morrisons is taking.”
Morrisons already pays a 1p-a-litre premium and today’s announced increases will be spread across all non- aligned farmers in our processors’ pools from August 1st.
Morrisons has been looking at a longer term solution to volatile milk price and will accelerate this programme.
The move by Morrisons follows the announcement by another UK retailer, the Co-operative that it will pay an increased premium of 2.57ppl with immediate effect, rising to 4.27ppl from August 1. This will increase The Co-operative’s farmer milk price to 29ppl with immediate effect.
The Co-operative’s decision comes after mounting public pressure on retailers to deliver fair prices to dairy farmers, culminating in demonstrations and protests outside milk processing plants.
An industry coalition, made up of the NFU, RABDF, NFU Scotland, NFU Cymru, TFA and FFA, has been calling for price cuts intended for August 1 to be scrapped and for price cuts which have already impacted to be rescinded.
