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What are the long-term goals to try to stablise milk price?
Longer term we all have to realise that we are now trading in the global dairy market and will need to compete with the best to survive. Yes most of our dairy products will still be consumed domestically, but we need to remain competitive to access export markets and to dissuade imported dairy products.
The global dairy market is volatile – it only takes small changes in production and consumption to have a massive impact on farmgate milk prices. We need to become cleverer in trying to manage that volatility. Some dairy farmers may enjoy the rollercoaster ride we’ve experienced over recent years – they may keep their costs low so that they can survive low prices and thrive in periods of low prices.
That isn’t the norm though and the variances in dairy farming systems, contracts, geographical area and ultimately the end use of milk mean that cost of production will vary greatly. What we need is options for farmers such as fixed price, fixed volume contracts – Glanbia already offer these in Ireland – formulaic contracts that are linked to some input cost indices and more use of futures and hedging by our milk buyers.
What are your views on the import of milk solids like butter and cheese?
Trading is a legitimate business and while we try to increase our export markets we can’t on the other hand call for closing our borders to imports. Our consumers should also be offered choice in the dairy aisles.
That said I do believe there is much more we can do to get more British dairy products on British shelves. Our main butter brand, Lurpak, is made with Danish milk, but sales help all EU Arla members, including those in the UK. But that same co-operative produces Anchor butter which is made with British milk and we have a number of other well-known British butter brands that proudly display the Red Tractor logo.
The UK is widely regarded as the home of Cheddar, so there should be no excuse as to why we can’t ensure a higher proportion of British cheddar on our shelves. We’ve lobbied the retailers hard to ensure that as much of their own label product as possible is British and there have been a number of positive announcements on cheese, butter and yoghurt this year. Through our Back British Dairy campaign this year we’ve tried to explain to consumers what makes British dairy different and why our consumers should support hard working British dairy farmers by purchasing British where they can. The messages around Red Tractor assurance, high welfare, environmental care, efficiency and quality are ones consumers want to hear about and I’ve been pleasantly surprised by their continued support.
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Could the NFU do more to communicate with the agricultural industry and farmers to share the facts?
There’s always more that can be done, but dairy has been the main topic that our communications team have dealt with over the last 12 months. This has been a mix of consumer and industry communications and we do try to get as much information out as possible to members. Take a look at
www.nfuonline.org.uk to see a flavour of the work we’re involved with – it’s our main communication tool, but we need to see it used more. It’s a treasure trove of information including the latest news on retailer sourcing policies, dairy contracts and TB for example. We also regularly update news on retailer and processor meetings as they happen. And then I’m travelling the country speaking to members at anything from farmhouse table meetings to major conferences. I rarely say no to a member request for a meeting.
Q A
Why is there not being more made of the nutritional benefits of milk – should this be in the national press more?
The Dairy Council are the UK experts on dairy nutrition and hold a vast bank of information on the nutritional benefits of milk and dairy products. A lot of their work goes unseen in the fact that they try to influence health professionals and
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