The battle over the price of milk swung in favour of producers last night with the National Farmers Union of England and Wales announcing that Asda had confirmed it would raise the price it pays for milk by 2p per litre (ppl) from 1 August.
NFU president Peter Kendall said the price increase from Asda should now pave the way for the three big milk processors to do the right thing.
“Today sees Asda joining Morrisons and the Co-operative in moving their milk price in the right direction,” he said. “They are all now committed to paying a price that covers their farmers’ cost of production.
“I know that, despite all of the fantastic work to date, there will be many farmers who remain unaffected by today’s news. Many don’t supply milk to a dedicated retailer milk pool and so, behind the scenes, we have started to tackle the discount retailers and food service companies.”
“This coming week will see the dairy coalition pulling out all of the stops to ensure the processors in the middle of the supply chain pull the August price cuts.”
One of the discount supermarket chains, Aldi, also announced that it would raise the price it pays for milk by 2ppl as from 1 August.
A spokesman for the supermarket claimed that the price reductions announced by the processors which sparked the whole dispute off had been taken without reference to them.
Earlier in the day, protest group Farmers For Action (FFA) claimed that it was being targeted by lawyers employed by Asda.
The FFA pressure group has been at the forefront of the blockades and forecourt demonstrations held at various locations throughout the country in the past ten days. A spokesman for the retailer confirmed that letters had been sent out late last week to those leading the FFA demonstration but the content of the letter was not a threat, merely a reminder that, back in 2010, FFA had given its word to Asda that before any demonstrations took place in the future, talks would take place. The supermarket added that it had no problem with peaceful demonstrations.
For its part, the FFA website claimed the supermarket had previous form in calling in its lawyers: “Whilst this will prevent the named people being seen organising various actions, we have plenty of people in the background ready to move forward so the action against Asda will continue.”
UK farming minister Jim Paice, straight from his brokering the deal that produced the heads of agreement for a code of practice, started his round of meetings with processors and major retailers.
“I’m going to emphasise just how crucial it is to take a more long-term approach,” he said. “The conversation will focus on issues such as the effects of their extremely competitive deals on the rest of the supply chain, and what could be done better to source and support British produce.”
But Paice also caught a right hook from his political colleague Anne McIntosh MP for the length of time the voluntary code has lain on the negotiating table. Conservative McIntosh chairs the influential environment, food and rural affairs committee in Westminster and yesterday she published a letter to Paice in which she described the delay as “unacceptable”.