Latest Arla milk price cut sees farmers lose 8p/litre in year

Arla dairy farmers have received another heavy milk price cut heading into December.

The co-op dropped the price paid to members by 1.63p/litre, including a 0.01p/litre reduction to the forecasted 13th payment.

Arla’s 3,000 British farmer-owners will receive 26.84p/litre from 1 December – more than 8p/litre less than they did in April.

Last month Arla held its price after a run of cuts, telling Farmers Weekly it had saved money by moving milk from commodities to branded products, putting off new projects and negotiating with retailers.

But pressure has stayed on world dairy markets, with a 3.1% fall in prices in last week’s the Global Dairy Auction wiping out the stability from the previous two sales.

Arla UK’s head of milk and member services Ash Amirahmadi said the challenging markets were caused by the prolonged impact of the high global milk supply and lack of demand.

“The imbalance is having a material impact in all European markets, with a consequential impact on earnings across the entire dairy industry,” he said.

“Arla has taken mitigating actions to reduce the impact on our owner milk price but, ultimately, it is not possible for Arla to negate the impact of global markets.”