First Milk gives price rise (From Western Telegraph)

First Milk gives price rise

Pembrokeshire dairy farmers supplying First Milk will get a price bonus in their milk cheques from this month.

The farmer-owned co-operative increased its payment to producers by 0.4p a litre from Sunday.

Although it is still below the price farmers need to fund reinvestment, it is the second increase since October. It marks a total rise of 1.52p a litre. First Milk director, Pembrokeshire farmer Mansel Raymond, said the rise was the result of negotiations with the co-operative's cheese customers.

Dairy Crest and Caledonian Cheese were urged to match increases already applied to liquid milk and they in turn had applied pressure to their retail customers.

The aim would now be to maintain the new price, said Mr Raymond. "A lot of effort has been put in across the whole industry to achieve this price rise. It was the pressure that was applied rather than market forces which created this outcome.

He admitted that it was not the solution to the crisis in the milk production industry. "We all know that it is not what producers need to move forward,'' he added.

In a letter to producers, First Milk chairman, John Duncan, acknowledged that increases achieved this autumn may only be a temporary fix. "We need to work together to ensure that this fragile increase holds through the winter,'' he said.

Dozens of farmers turned out for a series of recent meetings held by First Milk in Pembrokeshire to explain proposals for its new dual pricing policy. "A lot of people were happier when the proposals were explained to them,'' said Mansel Raymond.

Under the new system, farmers will be paid a core price of 80% of their average daily output throughout the year. The surplus will be paid at a second, marginal price which will reflect monthly production differentials.