NFU dairy board chairman Gwyn Jones said most milk producers were already operating at a loss and were in no position to absorb the extra production costs they had faced this summer.

A recent NFU/RABDF survey estimated these extra costs at 0.78p/litre.

“Hardly a week goes past without dairy farmers being told by one supplier or another that, with great regret, they have been forced to increase their prices because of higher raw material costs which they can no longer absorb,” said Mr Jones.

“Well, now the boot has got to be on the other foot. It is time to enable milk producers to pass on their extra costs, in the same way as other people in the supply chain pass on their costs to milk producers.

“For the average dairy farmer, these latest cost increases from more expensive energy and the impact of the summer drought on feed and fodder supplies take the gap between what it costs to produce a litre of milk and the price that is paid for it to around 4ppl. That is simply not sustainable.”

Source: fwi.co.uk