Scottish consumers importing raw milk to drink at £3 per litre

Dairy: Imports coming from as far as 800 miles away with farms in England flourishing

Milk drinkers in Scotland are importing raw milk from England at a cost of £3 per litre because they cannot get it in north of the border.

Even at a time when processed milk prices are on the floor some consumers in Scotland are importing milk from around 800 miles away and are prepared to pay premiums for it.

The practice of selling raw milk on farms is currently banned in Scotland but is allowed elsewhere in the UK.

A number of farms across England have installed their own vending machines on farm to take advantage of the demand for raw milk and are fully legal to do so.

Selling raw milk on farm is carried out under the strictest of conditions laid down by the Food Standards Agency but the farms that sell it are doing quite well.

One that has installed its own milk vending machine and acts as an agent for the Italian machines is Jonny and George Crickmore from Fen Farm Dairy in Suffolk.

The brothers milk around 300 Montbeliarde cows and keep a small beef herd and an arable enterprise. They also make raw cheese, butter and cream on the farm in theWaveney River Valley.

They were the first to install a milk vending machine on farm in the UK to sell raw milk and have complied with all the tests and legislation set down before them.

Jonny said they sell milk at £1 per litre from the machine in either plastic or glass bottles and are shipping it up to Scotland.

Jonny said: “We wanted to add value to our milk on top of all the cheese and cream making so decided to look at vending machines.

“We initially ran an honesty box beside a small fridge at the farm gate in which we put fresh milk on a daily basis.

“However, some people were not as honest as we thought they would be.

“The vending machine gives us total control and we are currently selling around 130 litres of raw milk per day from it.

“The public simply come to the farm and buy their milk either in a plastic of glass bottle.

“We sell the milk for £1 per litre and make 50 pence per litre depending on which bottle they choose.

“We still send about 90% of our milk produced to the processor and are only receiving 22 pence per litre for that.”

It seems demand for this type of selling milk direct from farm is on the increase as Jonny sold nine of the vending machines in 2015 and has already sold one in 2016.

“There are a number of benefits from drinking raw milk but there are also some dangers,” said Jonny.

“If a farm complies with all the health and safety legislations then there should be no problem.

“It seems strange that we can sell raw milk in England but it is banned in Scotland and even stranger that consumers there can buy it online and we can ship it up there.

“We normally sell five to 10 litres to the Scottish consumers in one batch and they freeze it for later use.

“By the time it reaches them taking shipping and ice pack packing into consideration the milk is costing them around £3 per litre.

“We are noticing higher sales in Scotland because there is a demand there yet no farmers to serve that demand which is really bizarre.”

A snowy scene above Balgowan, near Tibbermore, in Perthshire.

Selling raw milk on farms is banned in Scotland.