Muller Wiseman holds non-aligned milk price for January

Muller Wiseman will hold its non-aligned farmgate milk price at 22.35p/litre until at least February 2016.

The company has revealed there will be no change in the price for January – the fifth month in a row that the price has held steady.

Producers who are not on an aligned contract will continue to receive a retailer top-up payment on top of the base price.

This is the money that is feeding back to producers as a result of commitments from Lidl and Aldi that they would pay 28p/litre to processors for all liquid milk sold in their UK stores, but they expected this cash to be passed back to the farmgate.

See also: Muller suppliers set for 1.6p/litre retailer price boost

The supplementary payment is calculated on actual sales after each month, and for October deliveries will be an extra 1.751p/litre.

Muller Wiseman has a total of 1,200 milk producers.

Philip Rowney, chairman of the Muller Wiseman Milk Group board, which represents dairy farmers who supply the company, said: “The milk price is still badly affected by world supply and demand problems and not where we would like it to be.

“But Muller is showing the benefit of investment in adding value to the milk which we produce, and we welcome its stance on its standard farmgate price, and the supplementary payments it is receiving from customers.”