Muller Wiseman issues painful March milk price cut

Muller Wiseman has announced a hefty cut to its farmers’ March milk price, claiming it must compete with rival dairy companies.

Farmers supplying Muller outside supermarket contracts will be paid 24.15p/litre – 1.75p/litre less than in February.

In a statement, Muller Wiseman stressed its commitment to “clean” pricing, which does not include deductions, and added a table of farmgate prices paid by competing companies.

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Dairy Crest will also drop its March price by 1.5p/litre, First Milk has stayed the same and Arla has only announced a price for February.

Muller Wiseman Dairies managing director Carl Ravenhall said the farmgate milk price paid out had to reflect continuing falls in butter and cream values.

“We continue to take very difficult and painful decisions within our company to ensure that our costs are as low as they can be, but our business cannot compete if the cost of milk that we buy from farmers is substantially higher than that of our competitors,” he said.

“We very much look forward to seeing an improvement in the market for farmgate milk which can then be reflected in the milk price we can offer.”