The price increase has been announced for farmers who supply Tesco, and there aren't any in Northumberland and maybe only a very few in South Durham.

In fact, the only milk producers in the region who could directly benefit from this announcement are a handful who supply milk to Dairy Farmers of Great Britain for the "localchoice" scheme.

And so farmers in this region are now hoping that where the UK's largest supermarket leads, others will follow.

But in the meantime, they are still struggling to make ends meet, receiving on average just 18.5ppl for their milk - not enough to cover their costs, never mind invest in their businesses.

A quick glance at the forthcoming sales at the region's auction marts shows that a number of dairy farmers are still getting out of the industry and selling off their cows. Most of them have been in the industry for a number of years, and the cows they are selling boast top bloodlines.

In fact, according to Defra figures, 63 dairy farmers left the industry between 2000 and 2005 in County Durham alone. Northumberland NFU dairy representative Richard Gibb, from Eachwick House, near Ponteland, said: "Although Tesco's announcement was a brave announcement, and one that I applaud, it will not really affect dairy farmers in this part of the world directly.

Source:ic Newcastle.co.uk