Dairy Crest increases milk for cheese price but cuts liquid milk price

DAIRY CREST has announced a 0.4p/litre price increase on milk for cheese from Aug 1 but has also revealed a price cut of 0.3p/litre to liquid milk suppliers.

The processor blamed the reduction in the liquid milk price on the fact that it had not been able to realise anticipated price increases from middle ground retailers.

It said the price change on cheese took the total increase since Jul 1 to 0.7p/litre and it would continue to seek further increases for September.

Arthur Reeves, dairy Crest’s milk purchasing director, said: “We’ve held off from making this decision for a couple of months, fully aware of how delicate the balance in the industry has been.

“However there are now a number of factors that we can no longer ignore.

“These include our need to be competitive in the liquid milk market and the fact that we have not been able to realise price increases on some of our middle ground sales.”