See a one-stop shop on what you can do to back British dairy farmers here.
The NFU’s top legal expert, Nina Winter, and chief dairy expert, Sian Davies, explain:
Nina Winter
We’ve been asked if the NFU can set the price of milk in shops, or if the NFU can recommend a minimum price for milk in supermarkets. Sadly, we can’t.
The NFU is a trade association representing farmers, and competition law says we can’t interfere with the market. In short, we can’t try to ‘rig the market’ and influence the retail price of milk, as this would be anti-competitive.
What we can do is to call on the public to support British farmers by buying British dairy products. We can fight for better and fairer contracts for our farmers. We can fight to cut regulatory red tape so that our members can compete on an even playing field with dairy farmers around the world.
We won’t tell you where to buy your milk from, but we will push to make sure that you get clear information from retailers about what they are doing to Back British farming, so you can choose where you take your custom.
Sainsbury’s made a start with a national advertising campaign and a league table of supermarkets. But it’s just a start and we challenge all supermarkets – including Sainsbury’s – to commit to giving British farmers a fair and sustainable price for the milk that is used in cheese, butter and cream as well as bottled milk.
Sian Davies
We’ve seen hundreds of shoppers send us emails, leave Facebook comments, tweets us and ring us to ask where they should buy their milk and how much to pay. You’ve told us you want to help but you don’t know how to.
We wish we could give you a simple answer but it’s a complex and shifting situation.
Farmers don’t sell milk directly to shops. It’s collected from farm by a milk processor who then bottles it or turns it into other dairy products such as cheese, butter or yoghurt. Some milk is even dried into powder and exported.
Supermarkets buy milk from the milk processor. Due to commercial confidentiality, we don't know how much supermarkets pay for milk or how much profit - if any - supermarkets make on their milk sales.
It’s the same on other dairy products. What we do know is that some retailers have schemes in place that pay a sustainable price to their farmers for fresh milk . Waitrose, Marks and Spencer, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and the Co-operative have such arrangements where a farmer is paid a price above the cost of production for milk.
- See also: Morrisons launches Milk for Farmers
So where does this leave shoppers who want to support British dairy farmers?
Firstly, continue buying British milk and ask your local shop or supermarket what they are doing to support the British dairy industry.
Secondly, buy British cheese, milk and cream. This is a big part of the British dairy industry and a lot of milk is used for these products. If you can’t tell where these dairy products are from, ask in store. Here’s our guide on what to look for.
Lastly, keep informed of developments on our Back British Farming web pages and Facebook page.
The NFU will keep on fighting for a fair and sustainable milk price for British farmers. The NFU and British farmers value your support as much as we hope you value our milk.