Dairy farmers suffer another round of price cuts

Muller and Dairy Crest have both announced further painful milk price cuts that will take effect from June.

Müller is cutting its standard milk price by 0.49p/litre from 1 June 2016.

This takes its average price to 19.11p/litre before any additional retailer supplements are applied. These payments, paid by certain supermarket customers as their way of supporting dairy farmers, are currently 2.05p/litre.

See also: Arla criticised after latest milk price cut

Combining Muller’s price cuts for the months of April, May and June, means that farmers are looking at a 2.69p/litre fall over just three months.

Meanwhile, Dairy Crest has revealed the Davidstow milk price will drop by 1p/litre from 1 June, taking the Davidstow core milk price to 21.72p/litre.

Lyndsay Chapman, agriculture director of Muller Milk & Ingredients, said markets continued to be severely depressed due to the balance of supply and demand.

“We recognise that any further price reduction is difficult news for our farmers but we remain committed to paying a competitive and transparent milk price.

“Our farmers appreciate the retailer supplementary payments paid by a number of our customers, which currently equate to over 2ppl and cushion the impact of the current market conditions to some extent.”

Ruth Askew, Dairy Crest’s head of procurement, said the company was committed to paying a fair price for milk, but the dairy sector remained under extreme pressure.

“As a result, we must act responsibly to ensure that our cheese business remains competitive. Unfortunately this means that we must now adjust the milk price.

She added: “Our Davidstow price is still one of the most competitive manufacturing contracts in the UK, particularly given the significant volumes of milk we purchase.”