Ex-DFB milk suppliers to get extra 2p/litre

Former Dairy Farmers of Britain suppliers are to receive an additional payment of 2p/litre for milk supplied to the receivers.

PricewaterhouseCoopers said the payment applied to farmers who supplied milk to them after their appointment on 3 June 2009, until individuals had secured a new milk buyer.

The unexpected payment followed further successful cash collections from milk customers over the past six months, Stephen Oldfield, joint receiver and PwC’s UK agribusiness leader said.

“The strategy of the receivership was to rely on the DFB’s customers to pay a fair price for the milk in order not to cause a crash in the milk price.

“In the past six months we have been able to collect more money than we expected from the tail end of the customer book, meaning a further 2p/litre average to all those farmers who supplied the receivership until they found new homes to go to.”

“Farmers are struggling to make silage feed last through a long winter in the face of very high animal feed prices and we hope this brings welcome cash at a difficult time of year.”

The final report by the receivers will be followed in early March by the formal winding up of the co-operative, however, receivership activities will continue for many months. The extra payment will not affect the financial outcome for creditors and farmer members.