Milking the farmers

ONE group of hard-working people the Mail does have enormous sympathy with is Britain’s beleaguered dairy farmers, many of whom are currently having to sell their milk for less than it costs to produce.

Caught in a deadly vice of rising cattle feed costs on one side and avaricous supermarkets mercilessly driving down wholesale milk prices on the other, they are fighting for survival.

Farmers for Action, the protest group which blockaded supermarket distribution centres yesterday, estimates that unless farm gate prices rise to cover costs, one in ten farms could be bankrupt by the end of the year. Due to the ravages of the BSE and Foot and Mouth disasters, the number of UK dairy farms has already plummeted from 17,000 to 11,000 since the 1980s.

A further 10 per cent fall would almost certainly mean that, for the first time in modern history, Britain would cease to be self-sufficient in milk.

This can be in no- one’s interests – including the supermarkets, which would have to plug the supply gap by importing milk from massive factory farms in Eastern Europe, raising serious concerns over animal welfare and food standards.

And because of transport costs, it would probably be no cheaper. Four supermarkets, Tesco, Waitrose, Marks and Spencer and Sainsbury’s, already guarantee to buy milk for at least cost price – currently about 29p a litre. The good news last night was that the Co-op agreed to join them.

But others, including Asda and Morrison’s, pay less than 26p, despite charging between 44p and 60p in their stores. This newspaper would never condone price fixing by cartel, but is it really too much to expect these giant retailers to decide individually to put aside a tiny fraction of their vast profits to give farmers a fair deal and secure supplies of this fundamental foodstuff?