Wednesday, 5th May 2010
Name and shame the retailers ‘milking farmers dry’
A Scots MEP has called for supermarkets squeezing the dairy farmers who supply their milk to be named and shamed.
With the big retailers paying farmers a current average of just 24p per litre for milk – less than the 27p cost of production - more and more are facing financial ruin.
There are now only around 1,300 dairy farms left in Scotland – down from more than 2,000 in 1999, according to the National Farmers Union of Scotland (NFUS). Last year alone, 41 herds totalling more than 4,000 cows were lost from the sector.
Conservative MEP Struan Stevenson said a new report, ‘A Fair Deal for Farmers’, currently making its way through the European Parliament in Brussels, could help to level the playing field.
The report proposes a number of measures to help stem the loss of herds.
These include publishing a list of abusive pricing practices to ‘name and shame’ offenders and appointing an ombudsman in every EU Member State to arbitrate in disputes between suppliers and retailers.
Mr Stevenson said:
“With milk prices so ridiculously low, many dairy farmers are simply being milked dry by the supermarkets.
“This is driving an exodus from the sector every year which threatens Scotland’s ability to supply milk – meaning more and more will have to be imported.
“Scotland's dairy farmers provide a quality product under the strictest rules for welfare and hygiene in the world and yet they are bottom of the pile after the distributors, processors and retailers have each taken their large cut.
“While more red tape is rarely the answer, we must find a way to expose and condemn this merciless squeezing of our dairy farmers.”
The European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee will vote on the report’s recommendations in June. If approved, it will then be voted on in the full plenary session of the European Parliament in July, when its suggestions could become law.
