‘Middle ground’ milk prices under scrutiny
Garage forecourts, corner shops, smaller supermarkets and convenience stores are being targeted in new milk research.
Over the next few weeks, the general public is being urged by the Women’s Food and Farming Union to complete a survey of “middle ground” outlets.
The survey will attempt to find out which outlets are selling cheap milk under obscure labels.
“We need people to visit all these milk outlets, then report back the information that will allow us to focus attention on these retailers and show them the folly and unfairness of selling cheap milk,” says the WFU on its website campaign page, where a milk survey form can be downloaded.
The information required includes the price of the pint, the retailer’s name, address and type, and a code indicating the processor who bought the milk from a farm and supplied the particular retail outlet being surveyed.
Details will be collated to create up-to-date information on milk prices and product origins and also to act as a monitoring tool.
The WFU said its survey follows successes for the dairy coalition’s ongoing SOS dairy campaign, which is driven by a coalition of farming organisations including the NFU and aims to persuade major supermarkets and milk processors to give fair prices to Britain’s dairy farmers.
WFU national president Helen Bower said: “The Women’s Food and Farming Union started retail surveillance 32 years ago and the members are all keen to help the dairy farmers by filling in a milk survey form.
“I don’t know of any other industry that does not set the price for the products they sell; in agriculture our price is so often dictated by others.”
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