In the midst of a battle between farmers and processors over farm-gate milk prices, farming minister Jim Paice has admitted he does not know the price of a pint of milk. The minster, himself a former farmer, made the classic gaffe of acknowledging his ignorance during a BBC Radio 4 interview on Tuesday morning.

Mr Paice was being interviewed for the Farming Today programme over imminent protests by groups of farmers, after a recent bout of price cuts has threatened their viability; following cuts by a number of major processors over the past two weeks, producers in the UK say average prices are 5 pence per litre below the cost of milk production.   

Speaking on the programme, Mr Paice said he understood the farmers’ situation but refused to back “physical protest.” Although he expressed support for farmers who plan to descend on Westminster tomorrow to make their grievances known, the minister said "If there are calls for more militant activity I will condemn it."

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When presenter Anna Hill asked Mr Paice whether he knew the price of milk he replied, "No because my wife buys most of it, but I have checked with her where it comes from." The farming minister revealed his milk comes from “a supermarket that has an aligned chain.”

Dairy farmers have pledged to stage protests and withhold milk if the recent cuts are not reversed; for some suppliers these amount to a ten per cent pay cut announced in under two months. Last week, NFU Cymru Deputy President Stephen James berated the processors for claiming falling cream values were behind the decision to inflict price cuts on suppliers.

He asked, “Why should they just pass this loss onto their farmer suppliers? If Wiseman have sold processed liquid milk into the market place at a price that can only cover costs of production, when propped up by record high cream values like those seen in April 2011, then their business strategy is unsustainable and farmers will be considering their options going forward.”

Shadow Environment minster Mary Creagh today jumped on Mr Paice’s slip up. She commented, “It turns out that it is not just David Cameron and George Osborne who don’t know the price of milk, the Farming Minister is completely out of touch with reality too.  Farmers and consumers will be shocked that he doesn’t know the price of milk when there’s a crisis in the dairy industry.”

Ahead of tomorrow’s protest in London, aggrieved dairy farmers have picketed the Asda and Morrison’s stands at the Great Yorkshire show. The farmers carried placards reading “Tesco, Sainsbury’s, M&S, Waitrose support dairy farmers. The rest are killing us, paying 5p/litre below our costs.”

The two supermarkets were targeted as, although they pay a premium to their suppliers, they are reliant on processors’ prices, whereas other supermarkets operate dedicated supply chains which factor cost of production into farm-gate price.

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