More than half a century after their heyday, local milk producers are back in fashion. After a collapse in the price they receive from retailers and processors for their milk, dairy farmers – who protested in large numbers over the past week – are turning to selling their milk directly to consumers.
While the number of dairy farmers in the UK continues to fall, from 200,000 in the 1950s to fewer than 10,000 today, a growing number are now cutting out the retailers and middlemen and once again offering up their milk locally.
Data collected by the magazine Farmers Weekly has found more than 60 farms across England, Scotland and Wales selling milk: from Shetland Farm Dairies, which sells milk from the four remaining dairy farms on the islands, to Rodda’s Creamery, sourcing milk from local farms near Redruth in Cornwall.
As well as promoting local provenance, many of the dairy farms are selling unhomogenised milk, with even the semi-skimmed varieties sold with the almost forgotten creamy top.
It marks the revival of market that was lost with the emergence of refrigerated lorries and supermarkets in the second half of the last century. The use of milk as a loss leader by supermarkets to draw customers in made it impossible for a locally based dairy market to compete.
But consumers and caterers are now being urged to boycott retail milk and buy direct from farms to help struggling dairy farmers receive a fair deal.
Although retailers and milk processors blame the falling price of milk on global markets, dairy farmers say they are being unfairly affected. They say supermarkets sell milk too cheaply as part of their price wars, and that farmers don’t receive a fair proportion of the final retail price.
The average cost of production in the UK is around 30p per litre, says the National Farmers Union, with the average price farmers receive having fallen from about 32p per litre last year to 23p per litre today.
Josh Healy, who runs North Aston dairy near Oxford selling milk to 250 local customers, says he has already been contacted by new customers this week wanting to “give dairy farmers a fairer price”.
“We are completely isolated from the “global milk price” because we are selling to consumers rather than milk buyers who feel that they can reduce the price they pay for milk because there is a global surplus. Thankfully, our customers don’t check commodity markets before they decide how much they are going to pay us each month.
“I believe that it could be a viable option for farmers to save their businesses by downsizing their herd and investing in processing equipment to sell direct. It won’t be an easy solution but there seems to be a willing market if you offer something different,” he says.
