Do you want to buy dairy products made from British milk?

From a recent Guardian article:

“Waitrose, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and M&S, because 100% of their own-label milk is bought under fair trade deals. Waitrose pays 32.08p per litre, while Tesco pays 30.93p per litre – but the fair trade deals they have in place only cover their own brands of milk. Other milk products are not covered.

M&S on 1 June cut the price it paid suppliers from 34.265ppl on a standard litre to 32.818. Sainsbury’s pays 30.87p per litre and said this covers 97% of the milk it buys.”

I believe that all the supermarkets need to pay more for their milk than they do at present, or British farmers will move out of milk production or corners will be cut, making our milk less safe.

I am appalled to learn that less than 50% of butter in this country is made from British milk. On whose side are the manufacturers? I think that labelling of the country of origin should be made compulsory

I don’t think labelling is the problem here, William. The imported butters in the Dairy aisles are very well marked with their country of origin because shoppers want to buy the foreign lines. People know that Lurpak comes from Denmark, Président from France, and Kerrygold from Eire, and that might be why they like them. What few know is that Anchor butter, the archetypal New Zealand brand, is made in Wiltshire from UK milk. According to the Intro the Secretary of State said “Less than half the butter we eat in this country is made from British milk . . .” which I presume includes the butter used by commercial food producers and the catering trade which is where most of the imports probably go.

I must admit when these issues blow up it would be good to have an objective report on the underlying facts and economics of the business from all aspects. There was a time when government departments would issue such information but now there are political overtones with anything that comes out of Whitehall.

Butter has always, from my recollection, been imported in large quantities from Australia and New Zealand. We label British butter as such so we have the choice of what we buy.
Just a thought about subsidising (one way or another) British milk, for example by paying more per litre in the supermarket. When demand and supply worldwide match once again and world milk prices rise as a result, will the British dairy farmers undertake not to raise the price of our milk? To mix metaphors, pigs might fly.

What I’d like to know is just what the cost of producing a litre is, from the small dairy farmers who we would like to support to the large producers, who may well profit greatly from a “subsidy”.

I’ve found it hard to find real costs of producing a litre of milk. You’d expect the NFU to have current costs, but all I can find is 2010 prices. Average cost (all costs included) 29.1 ppl. So some dairy farmers will be more than this, others less. Price actually paid averaged 25.94 ppl.
Elsewhere 2013 figures show UK cost 30.48 ppl, New Zealand 21.63 ppl. No doubt shows our problem?

So perhaps someone can give real costs on which we can base an assessment of just how badly dairy farmers are faring – or not. As it seems little different from 5 years ago, there may be more to this than meets the eye. And why do not dairy farmers band together to form selling groups with more control of the price they can achieve?

Generally, where do subsidies cease for British producers of anything? They all involve protecting peoples jobs, whether it is food or any other manufactured product.

With many of our Conversations it is difficult to find reliable information, and and information that we do find could soon be out of date. The fact that farmers are complaining about milk prices and the fact that milk is now cheaper than it used to be does suggest that there is a genuine problem.

I am far from happy about bringing milk into this country when we have the capacity to produce it ourselves. It makes no environmental sense to move large amounts of low value products large distances, using fossil fuels and creating pollution. While not wishing to interfere too much with free trade, perhaps the EU should be looking at ways of cutting down the amount of bulk transport between countries.

Absolutely. We are an island, and although there are quick transport links to the continent recent troubles have shown that we cannot afford to undermine our own productive capacity.

If we want Daisybelle’s milk today on our corn flakes tomorrow then Daisybelle has to be living in the UK and the price of her milk has to be stabilised against global fluctuations. The grocers have been playing fast and loose with the reliability of our supplies by threatening our farmers with import substitution; they are now waking up to the fact that their behaviour is not popular with their customers and that there is no great price sensitivity in milk other than as an item in a price comparison basket.

I agree with Malcolm and Wavechange that we need more up-to-date facts on the economics of dairy production. Aside from the supply of fresh milk for domestic consumption [which is still almost entirely UK-produced], I suspect that the global commodity prices are driven by the milk traded in bulk for commercial food production or converted into various longer-life forms [e.g. cheese, butter, powder]. Getting a handle on that will be very difficult. It seems to me that the two price bases need to be uncoupled. To be able to sell a litre of milk – not far short of two pints – at no more than a pound today suggests to me that it is being used as a loss-leader. Even at £1.29 [M&S retail price] it is cheap relative to other drinks.

Cheaper than a lot of pointless bottled water. Crazy.

At the time of writing, Sainsbury’s British semi-skimmed milk is priced at 75p for a standard 2 pint bottle [1.13L].

The unit price is 66p a litre.

Larger volumes are 4 pints [2.27L] = 44p/ltr, and 6 pints [3.4L] = 43p/ltr.

This is economic ruination for the dairy industry; you could hardly milk the cow, pasteurise the milk, and sell it at the farm gate for those prices.

Buxton still mineral water works out at 40p a litre; Evian at 42.5p a litre.

A sugared and sweetened fruity liquid like Oasis “Citrus Fruit Punch” costs £2.50 a litre.