Where to buy milk that ensures fair price for farmers?

santer_2

Co-op breaks ranks and raises milk price

The increase will come in two steps, with a 2.57ppl rise immediately, topped up to 4.27ppl from 1 August, following processor reductions

http://www.scotsman.com/business/food-drink-and-agriculture/co-op-breaks-ranks-and-raises-milk-price-1-2424326

techspec

Its wrong that anyone should have to sell at a loss - or face being ruined by the big supermarkets.

I am happy to pay a bit more if it means a fair deal and saves jobs.

markwilkinson

Couldn't resist replying to this thread. We tried the doorstep delivery method for a while but it was pointless in the end. We were promised delivery by 7.00am each day. I can't remember a time this was fulfilled. I didn't stand in the kitchen with a stop watch lol, what we did was leave home at 8.00am to go to work. Coming home to milk that had been sat in the sun for 'x' hours and having to pour it away was a no brainer.

Started buying it a Riverford (we live quite close) but we struggled with it, as at the time Tetrapak recycling wasn't available. Plus, Riverford send out an unbelievable amount of articulated lorries to satisfy their successful veg box scheme. In my view, that's one local farmer that isn't struggling.....

We just buy in the supermarket now. We can recycle the packaging. Let farmers look after their own business, like we have to look after ours.

ArchieWW

Charliezoo - I fully support your views on this. Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall have urged the public to boycott supermarkets that use milk as "a loss leader", so I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw Asda’s full page advert in yesterday’s Metro, actually boasting that they are selling a 4 pint carton of Milk for £1 whereas the price charged by Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsbury is £1.18. I and most of my friends do not WANT cheap milk at the expense of our dairy farmers - we want farmers to be paid a fair price for their milk - not forced to sell at a loss. This has really turned me against Asda, I'm afraid, I feel so strongly about it. I am gobsmacked at their insensitivity to the public mood in support of our dairy farmers getting a fair price for their milk. Talk about shooting yourselves in the foot!

Edwardia

Nipped into Lidl while running errands and they had Fresh Meadows organic semi-skimmed milk 2 pints for 99p. That's just over 1 litre so only very slightly cheaper than the Moo organic milk I'm buying already. No idea whether it's British or European milk despite the name.

markwilkinson

ArchieWW wrote: »

This has really turned me against Asda, I'm afraid, I feel so strongly about it. I am gobsmacked at their insensitivity to the public mood in support of our dairy farmers getting a fair price for their milk. Talk about shooting yourselves in the foot!

Which public mood is that? A very small percentage I would wager! I'm not trying cause argument here and certainly not trying to pick on anyone.

I've followed HFW for years now and to a degree I do admire him though admittedly more for his early River Cottage programmes about growing your own and foraging etc rather than his more recent food 'campaigns'. There was quite a bit of publicity and a degree of success associated with his "chicken out" campaign. However, I talk to lots of people about food, due to my job, and the vast majority really don't care about the provenance of their food etc - they still buy on price alone. I can't see how ASDA have damaged themselves in this instance, yes you and undoubtedly other, have been turned off but I do wonder how many customers they may have gained?

Edwardia

I often feel that MSE promotes moneysaving over health and that price is the only consideration so it's refreshing to see a thread where people are thinking about other things besides price.

Hugh FW also highlighted the problem of fish discards in the North Sea and got signatures of over 800,000 people across Europe so far, to try and stop wastage of over 50% https://www.fishfight.net

As to the supermarkets, we judge them not only by their actions, but also by our perceptions - which really only shows whether their marketing department is any good or not !

Edwardia

https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/fmcg/fresh/dairy/hugh-and-jamie-wade-into-debate-on-milk-prices/230962.article

From https://www.thegrocer.co.uk

yangptangkipperbang

geordie_joe wrote: »

And you still don't know the full extent of it.

Farmers, like many others, are very good at telling people half the facts and leaving them to jump to the wrong conclusion.

Just like you are telling half the story !

Yes - farmers do get EU subsidies - for cereals, oil seed rape etc, etc but NOT for milk.

The contracts from the milk wholesalers give them the right to reduce prices paid to the farmers with NO notice and giving NO reason - the farmers however have to give 12 months notice to leave and sell their milk to someone else...........

if you are going to tell a story - tell a true one !!

kandfs_mam

The problem is that the supermarkets buy a small amount of milk from dedicated pools of farmers and pay them a premium of approx 1-2ppl but of course this is only a tiny percentage of what they actually sell - they buy the rest as cheaply as they can, playing the processors against each other to get the cheapest price. But the supermarkets can say that they are paying "their farmers" a fair price.

This is the same if milk from farms is going for liquid milk or yoghurt or cheese or powder. Since the beginning of the year the whole industry price has fallen but costs continue to rise. With the bad weather this summer, milk production is significantly down according to the NFU so you would think that the price would have to increase.

I too was shocked at the insensitivity of Asda in the Daily Record yesterday with an article about dairy farmers receiving below the cost of production on one page, followed by a full page spread by Asda on the next selling 4pts milk for £1.

On the subject of buying milk direct from farms, this is illegal in Scotland as Green Top milk (unpasteurised) can not be sold or given away. In England it can be sold but the law states that any farm under restriction for suspected TB must have all of it's milk heat treated so therefore cannot be sold as Green Top. HTH