Dairy Farmers And Milk Prices

EDM number 663 in 2008-09, proposed by Timothy Farron on 03/02/2009.
Categorised under the topics of Farmers, Food and Service industries.

That this House welcomes the beginning of National Dairy Week; notes with regret the reduction in the number of UK dairy farms; further notes with concern Wiseman's decision to reduce its milk price by 2.2 pence per litre and the announcement by Dairy Crest that it would cut its February milk price by 1.75 pence per litre and its Davidstow price by one pence per litre; expresses concern that the quota price of milk has crashed from approximately 32 pence per litre in 1988 to approximately one pence per litre in 2008; recognises that although the selling price of milk has increased, the share going to farmers has fallen since 1995 from 24.5 pence to 18 pence; acknowledges the role played in this by major supermarket chains in pushing down the price of dairy products with little regard for the need to get a fair price for farmers; and calls on the Government to act to protect dairy farmers by introducing a genuine supermarket regulator to establish a proper pricing calculation, based on a transparent pricing formula, that is detached from commodity pricing and which develops long-term, trusting relationships with the supply chain.

This motion has been signed by a total of 48 MPs.