Dairy Crisis Update - 6th of July 2012

An article from the FWi website records that the Farm Minister Jim Paice MP said that he was a proposed to get processors and the industry to find a future for the dairy industry. During Defra Parliamentary question time,  Mr. Paice MP said "I am concerned, but ministers can't set prices" and continued to say that Defra would hold "a consultation on a compulsory dairy package put forward by the European Union".

Mr. Paice MP said that the "Processors also needed to target growing dairy markets in countries like China so they could do more to support British producers and avoid having to make price cuts".

It is stated by FWi that the latest cuts to the dairy industry would slash as much as £50,000 off the average dairy farm income.

Comments from Dairy Farmers can be seen here.

A video of the meeting at Staffordshire Show Ground and comments from Dairy Farmers can be seen here:

I received a text from the NFU, it reads "Important message to NFU members: I want to give you the heads up that next Wednesday the NFU is holding a large meeting in London to highlight the devastation dairy farmers face due to the recent and proposed price cuts. I hope many farmers in more fortunate sectors than dairy will show support. Please contact your regional office for details on how you could help with support on the day. Many thanks, Peter Kendall"

A link to the regional office for the NFU can be found here. The Farmers Guardian reports that the event is, indeed, taking place on Wednesday with  "exact timing and venue are yet to be finalised. 
Farmers will be invited to turn up in large numbers to demonstrate to politicians, the food chain and the wider public the strength of feeling over the price cuts imposed in the past week by the major UK milk buyers". The article continues to report that the "NFU president  Peter Kendall said the union was planning to stage a ‘very large gathering’ in London next week to raise the profile of the crisis.
“I have never known in all my time in the NFU such strength of feeling and anger among our members,”".


More information to come when it is published and keep an eye on the Farmers Guardian, the Farmers Weekly, the NFU and Ian Potter Associates. There is also a new Facebook page that has arisen in the last day.