British v imported UHT milk

Rumours about imports of UHT to Britain have been circulating this week but what is the actual situation on the ground?

Figures are hard to come by but UK annual UHT production is estimated to be around 120 million litres (with the main producer being Crediton dairies in Devon). UK annual UHT consumption is around 240 million litres so in the UK we consume twice as much UHT as we produce. Margins on UHT are low and it’s a product that faces intense competition from imports and as such a number of UK based UHT plants have closed over recent years. Furthermore UK dairy processors don’t actually produce the formats of flavoured milk that we consume here in the UK in any decent quantities.

Quantities of UHT imported into the UK in 2015 are as follows:

UHT milk imports

Michael Oakes, NFU dairy board chairman, said: "If we are to replace UHT imports with domestic production we need the processing capacity first.

"On a more positive note some of our retailers are actively sourcing British UHT milk and as part of their minimum liquid milk pricing pledge announced last August ALDI is the only retailer, that the NFU is aware of, that pays a 28ppl farmgate price to the processor for all liquid milk sold under the ALDI own label brand - that’s fresh and UHT.

"Even though volumes of UHT sold are small in comparison to fresh milk the NFU will continue to encourage retailers and foodservice providers to source British and pay a sustainable price for it. Longer term we must look into UK processing capacity per product and we’ll work with AHDB Dairy and DairyUK in compiling that."