The 25 per cent increase, which equates to 33 litres of additional milk per year for every person in Scotland, has seen milk being trucked to England in order to find a market for it.
Muller said this had resulted in more than 6,000 tanker movements travelling a total of 2.5 million miles, meaning it was not sustainable and highlighted ‘significant environmental consequences’.
Following a month-long review, the company will introduce measures to tackle the problem, which has seen Müller’s 230 Scottish dairy farmer suppliers cumulatively increase production since 2014 by the equivalent of 33 litres of additional milk per annum for every person in Scotland.
NFU dairy board chairman Michael Oakes said: “This latest announcement from Muller, coming just a fortnight after the collapse of Tomlinson’s Dairies in Wales, will raise even more concerns that the liquid milk market in the UK is broken. Tight margins throughout the dairy supply chain have meant many businesses are failing to achieve sustainable returns which is threatening the long-term prosperity of the sector and leaving farmers carrying much of the risk.
“The NFU has written to the Efra Select Committee calling for an urgent investigation into the country’s liquid milk processing sector to help safeguard the future of British dairy and to determine how industry can work together to create a more robust and resilient market for both farmers and processors.”
Rob Hutchison, Milk Supply Director for Müller Milk & Ingredients said: “We fully appreciate that these measures will be extremely unwelcome and destabilising for our farmer suppliers particularly in the North East of Scotland, but the current situation is unviable and we must act.
“We completed the largest single investment in fresh milk processing in Scotland in more than a decade at our dairy in Bellshill last year and we will continue to do what we can to stimulate new demand for fresh milk.
“But with fresh milk already in 96% of the nation’s fridges and overall consumer demand for the product in marginal decline, the reality is that it is extremely unlikely that this sector will soak up the heightened levels of milk production from farms which we have seen.
“Our farm services team will now work closely with affected dairy farmers and we will do everything in our power to help them adjust to the changes which we must now make.”