Farmers' fury at new milk price blow

Shropshire's biggest dairy has announced the price it will pay farmers for milk from January 10 will drop by 1.2 pence per litre to 25.90ppl.

It comes as campaign group Farmers For Action prepares to stage the latest in a series of blockades outside the Market Drayton-based dairy from 8pm tonight.

The dairy firm says the cut is due to a continuing imbalance between the supply of milk and demand for dairy products, both in the UK and around the world.

In September it announced the price would drop by 1.9ppl to 27.1ppl from November.

David Handley, chairman of FFA, said: "This is unprecedented. We have never experienced anything like this. Somehow or other it has got to stop. If it doesn't stop you will see businesses going bust and more tragic situations than that."

Rob Harrison, National Farmers Union dairy board chairman, said: "Things are bad and we're all going through some tough times. For the first time this month we have dropped below 10,000 dairy farmers in England and Wales and we can't afford to lose too many more."

Martin Armstrong, head of group milk supply for Muller UK & Ireland Group, said: "We have completed a series of meetings with farmers who supply us across England, Wales and Scotland to discuss the immediate market outlook, the challenges currently faced and our strategy for growth.

"We will continue this direct dialogue with our 1,200 farmer members to keep them informed of progress and prospects."

Roddy Catto, chairman of the Muller Wiseman Milk Group which represents dairy farmers who supply Muller, added: "The board remains extremely concerned by the continuing fall in milk price and the impact on dairy farmers and acknowledges the company has worked to minimise the milk price reduction in terms of scale and timing."

Paul Rowbottom, FFA member, said ahead of tonight's protest: "We would like to see everyone out at the protest. The situation is quite desperate."