Express denies backing call for 100 donations

04 May 1999

Express denies backing call for £100 donations

By FWi staff

EXPRESS Dairies has denied backing a Sussex milk producers appeal for fellow farmers to donate £100 each to his “sell milk” campaign.

Anthony Adorian, who farms at Billinghurst, West Sussex, claimed last week that Express had offered to support his go-it-alone campaign to promote milk.

Mr Adorian was reported in some farming papers as claiming that Express had offered to match his campaign pound-for-pound if he reached his £1.5 million target.

But a spokeswoman for Express told Farmers Weekly this afternoon that no such undertaking had ever been made.

“Any advertising campaign should be jointly funded by farmers and milk processors and implemented by the National Dairy Council,” she said.

Mr Adorian launched his voluntary scheme after being frustrated at other attempts to persuade dairy producers to fund a milk advertising campaign.

In a letter to other farmers he wrote: “It is time for us as producers to take positive action rather than argue about who should pay for what.”

The appeal goes against the wishes of the National Farmers Union (NFU) which wants a statutory producer levy to fund milk advertising across the country.

Agriculture minister Nick Brown last month refused to back the statutory route, urging NFU officials to consider instead the option of a voluntary levy.

Express Dairies said it was more than willing to help fund an official advertising campaign but was not interested in a scheme that relied on voluntary donations.