Milk Link has agreed to offer contracts to the remaining 143 Dairy Farmers of Britain members who have not yet found a home for their milk.
The deal with DFoB receivers and managers PricewaterhouseCoopers means that those who sign up to the contract will receive over 18p for a standard litre of milk from 1 July 2009, instead of the 10p/litre minimum base price being paid by the receivers. There will be a three-month notice period for the new contract.
Most of the remaining DFB members are in north-east England and North Yorkshire, Cumbria and Lancashire and south of Manchester, with a smaller number in south Wales.
"In the first three weeks of the receivership, 1600 of the 1800 farmers were able to find alternative buyers for their milk but there remained a rump of farmers that could not - mainly due to the remoteness of their location or the size of their herd," Stephen Oldfield, PwC's agribusiness leader and joint receiver, said.
"It is very good news that we have been able to find an alternative for those remaining farmers less than a month into the receivership and at a much improved price than we were able to offer. Farmers need to take independent advice before signing up but this is a real step forward to sorting out the remaining DFoB milk field and finding a safe home for farmers' milk."
Milk Link's Will Sanderson said the contract provided those DFoB farmers with no alternative buyer a much-needed period of stability and a secure outlet for their milk. "It will also allow them time to assess how they want to move forward in dairy farming."
Milk Link also acquired the DFoB-owned Llandyrnog Creamery earlier this month.
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