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Farmers are crying over the price of spilt milk...
Protesters hammer home the point over need for official probe
By Chris Rundle - Farming Editor
West Country dairy farmers have demanded a Government inquiry into milk pricing amid claims of a supermarket cartel.
More than a dozen of them, dressed in cow costumes, used the Royal Smithfield Fair as the launch pad for their campaign.
They are being backed by Somerset farmer and MEP Neil Parish and they say, unless the entire industry gets behind them to put pressure on Ministers, even more producers could end up being forced out of the sector by cripplingly low incomes.
Demonstration organiser Sally Dare, from Axminster, said more than 2,000 dairy cattle had been sold off farms in her area since early October.
And, she said, as an employee of a feed company as well as a dairy farmer's wife she could see both sides of the farmers' dilemma.
"I not only know what it means to go on producting milk at a loss, I know the pressure this puts on suppliers as well," she said.
"Farmers are having difficulty paying their bulls and they are constantly coming in and saying the suppliers must drop their prices because they can't afford to pay."
Farmers now get an average of 17p a litre for milk which sells for 51p in supermarkers, but the cost of production is put officially at 21p.
More than 1,000 dairy farmers have quit in the past year and campaigners say the total will continue to grow unless the Government intervenes.
Mr parish said: "What the Government fails to understand is that it is dairy farmers who play such a major role in looking after the countryside.
"And if they are so keen on reducing food miles then the last thing they want to happen is to have more liquid milk being imported.
"The sad fact is that the government broke up Milk Marque, which controlled 37 per cent of the market, claiming it was a monopoly, which it was anyting but. What that has done is to leave farmers almost powerless to influence price.
"There is absolutely no reason why the milk price here should be the lowest in Europe but the fact is that out supermarkets have got a cartel going and they can drive the price down.
"Unless we allow farmers' co-operatives to co-operate more and get some more muscle in the marketplace that is going to go on. In reality thre is no justification for milk being 20 per cent cheaper here than it is across the Channel.
"We are not hitting national quote so it is evidently not quote that is restricting production, it is price.
"And it's no good Ministers or the processors claiming that's just the inefficint producers who are getting out, because there are some highly efficient ones who are going as well.
"They can stand low prices for a year or two but they've had them for seven or eight years and they've had enough."
Dairy industry campaign to ensure fair profit margins.
Young Farmers in milk price protest.
By Peter Hall - Farming Editor
A group of Young Farmers from the Westcountry demonstrated at a national event yesterday against the low prices they are being paid for milk.
The 12, from Young Farmers' clubs in Devon, included nine who wore pantomime cow outfits to draw attention to their campaign, launched on the first day of the Royal Smithfield Christmas Fair at Shepton Mallet.
They were backed by Euro MP Neil Parish, who called on the Government to look into allegations that major supermarket chains run a price-fixing cartel which could force farmers out of dairy production.
The farmers - collectively called The Great Milk Robbery - were confined to the entrace of the Royal and Bath and West of England Showground until Mr Parish, a Conservative MEP and farming spokesman, interceded with show authorities and they were allowed on the main fair site.
Mr Parish, who farms in Somerset, said: "We want the Government to appoint a special dairy regulator to ensure a fair pricing system, and to allow the three large, farmer-owned dairy cooperatives to combine, so they can negotiate better with the retailers. We also want the Department of Trade and Industry to investigate how milk is being bought nad sold in this country and whether a cartel is being operated by the supermarket chains.
"There is something very wrong with a system which allows a bottle of water to cost twice the price of a bottle of milk. We have the lowest mlk prices in Europe, and this protecst shows how serious the situation has become."
Protest organiser Sally Dare, of Yarcombe Young Farmers' Club, began the campaign when customers at her animal feeds business complained about prices.
Mrs Dare, who is married to a dairy farmer, said: "The situation is serious - 2,000 dairy cattle have changed hands in the Westcountry in the past three months as herds have given up, and 1,000 dairy farmers in the UK have gone out of business in the last 12 months.
"We need more profit margin to cover our production expenses. It costs almost 21p per litre to produce milk, but the selling price for many suppliers is only about 17p per litre. That is unsustainable.
"We must have a bigger slice of the profits from the supermarkets or there won't be a dairy industry left."
Mrs Dare said Westcountry supermarkets would be picketered in the run-up to Christmas.
Vistors flocked in their thousands to the opening day of Royal Smithfield - the first time the national prime stock show has been held outside London.
Exhibitors and visitors said they appreciated the move to a more accessible and less expensive site.
More than four dozen Westcountry farmers are showing livestock at the two-day event and 40 agricultural firms from all over the region have stands.
In total more than 300 cattle and 460 sheep are being exhibited.
The Princess Royal flew in by helicopter to the fair yesterday morning, to present prizes in the Young Farmers' livestock sections.
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