Morrisons introduces a new milk brand in response to mounting pressure from British farmers
Dairy farmers have been protesting over the unfair prices supermarkets are paying for their products – now supermarket Morrisons is trying to get back on side with its farmers.
The supermarket has agreed to start selling a new brand, 'Milk for Farmers', which will cost an extra 10 pence per litre than its standard own brand label. The price difference will go directly back to farmers, who feel they have been forced into protest action due to supermarkets slashing the price of milk without offering any compensation.
The most recent protest saw a cow paraded through an Asda store and farmers blockade a Morrisons distributions centre.
The uproar is in response to the British dairy organisation AHDB Dairy suggesting that British farmers need to receive 30p per litre to cover their costs but that on average they take home little over 23p.
It has reached fever pitch due to the unrelenting price war, which has seen Britain’s largest supermarkets forced to cut the price of basics, such as milk and eggs, in order to woo customers through their doors as they face stiffer competition from the likes of Aldi and Lidl.
The National Farmers Union said this has led to a “devaluing of British produce”.
Currently, milk is on average six pence cheaper than bottled water.
The supermarkets have taken the bulk of the pressure to pay famers fairly and the NFU has been in talks with many over the past week. On the back of one such meeting, Morrisons decided to create the new milk brand.
Meanwhile, Arla Foods will be putting a new symbol on all of its dairy brands – which include Anchor and Cravendale – to show that the product is from a farmer-owned business and they are compensated accordingly.
The NFU however has declared that more must be done to address the problem declaring a “state of emergency” for British farmers.
Among its demands, the NFU wants clearer labelling on products to indicate whether they are imported or British.