David's Digest

What took you so long Sir Terry? OK, we must not be churlish when you do finally respond to a crisis among your suppliers and although I am not involved in milk I add my thanks to that of those who do produce it. But I cannot resist pointing out that it has taken many months of campaigning by dairy farmers and a hundreds of casualties in the shape of producers forced out of the business along the way.
Those that are left and selling to the biggest UK retailer must now ensure that the increase announced by Tesco's actually appears on their milk cheque and does not disappear into middlemens margins. They must also hope that other milk buyers who have not yet raised their prices to viable levels are embarrassed into following Sir Terry Leahy's example.
What this tells us is that even retail giants will do the right thing eventually provided public opinion demands it. I believe that the stream of press articles and TV programmes showing exactly how supermarkets mistreat some of their suppliers, the latest of which was aired on BBC1 as recently as Monday evening, is almost entirely responsible for the rise in price. That and the realisation that unless something significant were done soon the critical mass that it takes to sustain an industry would be lost. Let us hope it was not too late.