Minister told of milk price anger

The plight of Scotland’s financially squeezed dairy farmers was taken to Westminster this week where the case was pressed for producers to receive a better share of returns from the marketplace.

Leading the delegation which met UK farm minister George Eustice, NFU Scotland said that the country’s dairy farmers continued to shoulder unsustainable losses despite a significant upturn in the market.

During the meeting, which was facilitated by Lothians Mpcalum Kerr, NFUS dairy committee chairman Graeme Kilpatrick said that over the last seven weeks there had been a seismic shift in the global dairy market – but farm gate prices were lagging behind.

He told the minister that the dairy commodity market had risen 24 per cent, that the spot price of milk had now risen to over 35 p a litre and that cream was approaching a record high of £1.70 a litre.

Kilpatrick said that it was therefore of huge concern that the average price farmers in Scotland were being paid for their milk remained close to 20p a litre – a reflection of the fact that processors were failing to pay dairy producers a more realistic price.

“Despite all these positive signals, dairy producers still aren’t seeing increased returns to allow them to run a viable and sustainable business,” said Kilpatrick.

“Contracts which better reflect the needs of the farmer and the processor are an essential prerequisite of an efficient and constructive supply chain and Mr Eustice accepted there is a need to develop better contracts and producer representation.”