New Milk Co-Op Can Transform Dairy Sector

UK - The proposed merger between the co-operatives First Milk and Milk Link is the best news the dairy industry has had for many years, says the NFU, offering as it does the potential to produce a world-class, producer-owned milk processing company delivering real benefits for consumers as well as producers.

8 October 2007

2 minute read

Europe

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"It is essential that we use the opportunity provided by improved dairy commodity prices to create structures that will give the UK milk industry long-term competitiveness"

NFU Dairy Board chairman Gwyn Jones.

The merger will create an integrated co-operative processing into value added dairy products some three billion litres of milk a year produced by 4,250 dairy farmer members.

"A merged Milk Link and First Milk would be a tremendous force for good in the dairy industry", said NFU Dairy Board chairman Gwyn Jones.

"It will create economies of scale, pave the way for investment in new products, transform the dynamics of the supply chain and offer consumers greater security of a continuing supply of top quality home-produced dairy products.

"In the context of the EU single market, even a £1 billion co-operative is still a relatively minor player. A merged First Milk/Milk Link would be handling just two per cent of the milk produced in the EU.

"In fact, by giving a very large number of dairy farmers the confidence and the ability to invest in the long-term future of their industry, it is very much in consumers' best interests.

"It is essential that we use the opportunity provided by improved dairy commodity prices to create structures that will give the UK milk industry long-term competitiveness. In that context, this move could not have been better timed."