Asda farmers celebrate breaking 3bn pint barrier

A group of Asda dairy farmers have celebrated hitting the three billion pint mark more than three years after joining the Asda Dairylink scheme.

The innovative scheme ensures each of the 550 participating Dairylink farmers is paid a 1p per litre premium for supplying the supermarket with fresh milk, equivalent to £8000 more in their back pockets each year.

Asda Dairylink members currently receive 26.5p per litre. Since the scheme was launched in 2004, more than £12m has been paid out in milk premiums by Asda to its dedicated farmers.

Geoff Spence, (pictured below) Farmers Weekly Dairy Farmer of the Year 2007 said: “I have been supplying Asda for the past two years and the premium that I receive has helped me to invest in a new state of the art milking parlour and housing at my farm.

“This has helped me to keep my business sustainable in a very unsure market and has gone some way in enabling me to develop my business for my family in the future,” Mr Spence added.

The Asda scheme ensures it knows which farm every pint of milk on its shelves has come from. The milk is segregated at Arla Foods‘ dedicated dairies enabling Asda to have full traceability of its milk.

Chris Brown, Asda’s head of sustainable sourcing said: “This is an important landmark. The Dairylink programme has been an enormous success and reflects the importance we place on the relationship with our dairy farmers.”

Because of the way Asda sources its milk from farmers throughout Britain, the distance travelled between the farm, dairy and the store is as short as possible. As a result five million road miles have been saved each year, and Asda guarantees all its milk will remain fresh for seven days after purchase.