The Milking Goat Association wishes to make the following statement relating to the notice of contract termination given to all of Arla’s goats’ milk suppliers last week, and that of Abergavenny Fine Foods given to some of its goats’ milk suppliers as of yesterday:

This is absolutely devastating news for all the goats milk suppliers affected by these two actions taken by goats milk processors, and the MGA’s first and foremost wish is to pass on our Directors thoughts to these farmers, who now find themselves in the unenviable position of taking very difficult management decisions, in order to respond to the forthcoming loss of their milk buyer.

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The Milking Goat Association, formed in early 2017, has this year encouraged suppliers to engage evermore with their milk buyers in order to address supply demands and possible oversupply. However it is evident from the action of Arla and Abergavenny Fine Foods, that oversupply continues to be cause for serious threat to our industry.

The Milking Goat Association wishes to repeat its plea to encourage existing goats’ milk suppliers to engage closely with their milk buyers, to find out what the buyers want. This is as much about volume, as it is about milk profiling across the year, solids and protein content targets and so on.

To the milk buyers, the Milking Goat Association requests that they work much closer to their milk suppliers, and help them more to meet future supply requirements, without risking over supply.

Those considering entering the goats’ milk supply market need to be very mindful of this current oversupply situation, and think very carefully before diversifying and investing at this difficult time.

As an industry we must learn from this situation now, and take the lead in self regulation of our production levels.