A FIVE-point action plan to tackle pricing issues affecting the dairy industry was unveiled last night by the Scottish Government.
Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead told representatives of the National Farmers Union (NFU) Scotland that he has called for a summit with his UK and Welsh counterparts, which could take place in advance of this month's Royal Welsh Show.
The strategy also includes asking Jim Paice, the UK Agriculture and Food Minister, to appoint an "independent objective facilitator" to assist with negotiations between producers and processors in an effort to agree a voluntary code of practice, a move praised by NFU Scotland.
Mr Lochhead also wants to write to retailers demanding clarity for consumers about how much dairy producers receive for their milk, to commission a long-term strategic review on the dairy industry and funding for organising ventures such as co-operatives.
He said: "We all drink milk and we need the dairy industry to continue and we must not risk letting it crumble. I know consumers are right behind the milk industry."
About 2500 farmers, including 40 from Scotland, marched on Westminster on Wednesday in protest at a drop in the price per litre being offered to farmers by milk processors and sellers.
The NFU is now considering
advertising and poster campaigns for its potential boycott campaign, with the public being urged not to support the supermarkets that farmers claim do not offer a fair price.
A source said: "It is too early in terms of the boycott to say what will be done. We will have to look to our regions and it will take a bit more time to organise."
Larger traders – including Arla, Dairy Crest, First Milk and Robert Wiseman Dairies, who buy milk from farmers to process and sell on to retailers – will cut the prices paid to farmers by up to 2p a litre from August.
It follows another 2p drop earlier this year.
Global overproduction and the fall in cream prices are both blamed. DairyCo, a research organisation, said it believed pressure would continue to be put on processors, hitting the consumers at the tills.
A spokesman for Arla said: "All dairy processors – in the UK, Europe, and globally – must operate according to natural market forces.
"If the Government chose to intervene this could distort the natural balance and we do not believe this would be sustainable in the long term."
A spokesman for Robert Wiseman Dairies said: "We continue to seek operating efficiencies to reduce our own costs and it is our hope the market at the core of this issue will quickly find a balance which allows us to return an improved milk price."
Dairy Crest said it could not support direct action affecting its supplies.
Glasgow-based co-operative First Milk said the industry needs both Government input in terms of price structuring and businesses to seek to diversify.
A spokesman for the British Retail Consortium said: "The reason it is such a mistake to be criticising UK supermarkets, as if they were these great all powerful price-setters, is because prices are set by world forces of supply and demand."
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