Current Milk Prices For Farmers
Future Milk Prices For Farmers
First Milk is delaying paying dairy farmers for two weeks after supermarket price wars saw the price of a pint of milk plummet to 22 pence last week More than 1,000 farmers were not paid for their milk yesterday after a crash in prices plunged the industry into crisis. The biggest dairy co-operative First Milk delayed payments to its 1,300 farmer members by a fortnight – and cut the price it pays them. Campaigners warned it was ‘the worst crisis the industry has ever seen’, with little sign of matters improving. Global milk prices have plummeted in recent months, meaning some British farmers now receive as little as 11.4p a pint (20p a litre) – well below the average 15.9p a pint (28p per litre) it costs to produce it.
Current Milk Prices For Farmers 2018
Just a year ago farmers could expect to receive 19.2p a pint (34p a litre). The amount paid to farms is now at its lowest level for eight years, far lower than in 2012, when farmers blockaded milk processors in protest at the low prices they were paid. First Milk, which sells milk to be turned into cheese, butter, yogurt and powdered milk around the world, has increasingly struggled to pay farmers as the lower prices drive down its income. Its announcement comes after co-operative Arla and processors Dairy Crest and Muller Wiseman also cut their milk prices in recent weeks. More than 60 dairy farmers are now going out of business every month, according to the National Farmers’ Union. First Milk chairman Sir Jim Paice, a Conservative MP and former farming minister, said the dairy industry was going through a period of ‘extreme volatility’.