UK Dairy Farming: Why We Should Cry Over Spilt Milk

“If supermarkets and smaller retailers continue to put pressure on processors to lower the delivered cost of milk through cutting returns to dairy suppliers, then the downfall of the UK dairy industry is inevitable. Particularly impactful on smaller dairy farmers, they need to stand together and make sure the current losses being made do not continue and affect our future dairy farmers.

“For the farming unions however, this is easier said than done, despite their lobbying efforts. Farmers invest huge amounts in order to deliver and need to be rewarded accordingly. We need to educate retailers and their consumers on the importance of UK dairy produce and its corresponding economic and environmental value, otherwise it will end up a dying trade. 

“Additionally, many independent retailers will have an affinity with smaller dairy farmers, although their listings aren’t as heavily weighted as the demand from supermarkets. Across the board, more needs to be done to better communicate the cost of milk production compared to water; otherwise we will see even more farmers devalued and leaving the industry.

“Although these current events aren’t having as bad an effect on the organic dairy sector, we foresee it will soon spread across the entire industry and could even affect cheese production and prices with similar consequences. This is particularly worrying when coupled with Russia’s imposed sanctions on EU food imports, which lead to a surplus of cheese and a similar reduction in prices. We don’t want a future where profit margins are so low that factory farms become a preference, and so hope the Government’s investigation helps bring our sector out of the red and back on track.”