Pay for school milk, ABN tells government
25 November 1999
Pay for school milk, ABN tells government
By FWi staff
A FEED company has urged the government to get behind the UK dairy industry and support school milk with hard cash.
ABN says the government should put up the necessary £4.8 million to meet the shortfall when the EU withdraws half of cash needed to fund the scheme.
For the school milk scheme to continue, member states must make up the difference, and Brussels has suggested that milk producers and processors fund this.
Tim Wilson, ABN retail ruminant sales director, said: “Its time for the government to put its money where its mouth is.
This would help ensure the equivalent to the output of 124 dairy farms is consumed by UK primary school children.
He said it was “a bridge too far” to expect farmers and processors to contribute, when they were already supporting milk and generic marketing funds.
“Without this contribution the EU will not fund school milk in the UK. This would be a disaster for both dairy farming and the nations schoolchildren.”