Milk price drops due to cheap imports

Chris Edwards, head of dairy training and development at Reaseheath, has commented on the recent fall in price of spot milk saying that importing milk is cheaper than sourcing it in the UK.

British-produced milk is in general shortage due to the amount of British farmers forced to leave the primary milk production sector.

While this shortage in UK milk did ease in October, supplies remain at very low levels from the UK.

There is not a high enough number of milking cows to cope with commercial demand.

The large 4 per cent cut in September milk deliveries from farmers to processors compared against this time last year has driven the recent drop in price of spot milk.

The main reason for the drop in price from about 26ppl to circa 17ppl is that it is simply cheaper to import goods into the UK.

This has resulted in the short supply of milk being partly relieved by major imports of raw milk from Northern Ireland but also some smaller, but still significant, supplies from Europe.

To contend with the drop, farmers should look to the long term and continue to diversify and turn their milk into products to sell locally.

However, this is fraught with its own problems such as technical knowledge, marketing, understanding the product and resources.

'We are the most efficient producers in Europe and we need to recognise this fact rather than focusing on price,' said Edwards.

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