Booths supermarket guarantees highest milk price

Family-owned supermarket Booths has relaunched its own-label milk range and has promised to pay the highest farmgate price among retailers.

Four farmers will supply the northern chain with 6m litres of milk each year under the banner of Fair Milk.

They will initially be paid 35.5p/litre and Booths has committed to review the supermarket milk pools regularly to make sure its farmers are paid more.

Tesco currently pays 34.3p/litre via Muller Wiseman and 34.2p/litre via Arla, while Sainsbury’s farmers are paid 33.16p/litre.

Booths chairman Edwin Booth said he guaranteed farmers would receive the best price because dairy farms were under pressure.

“Paying the highest market price means family farms are able to keep going, invest in the future and spend more time and money looking after their herds to ensure they produce great-quality milk,” he said.

Booths has 29 stores across Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cheshire and Cumbria, and one farm from each county will supply the new Fair Milk.

Roger Mason from Heaves Farm in Levens, Cumbria, said he was proud to work with Booths to supply and promote a quality local product.

“The opportunity to receive a high long-term, sustainable farmgate milk price bodes well for us and other local farmers, giving us the confidence to invest and ensure a viable future both for ourselves and the next generation,” he said.

See also: Tesco milk price cut sparks farmer anger