Dairy cooperative First Milk has announced a further increase in profits. The cooperative recorded profits of £7.2 million in the year to March 2011, compared to £360,000 the year before.

Chairman Bill Mustoe said the current year had also started well, with more money being put on both liquid and cheese milk prices and the aquisition in May of Kingdom Dairy and Kingdom Cheese.

Celebrating the announcement, First Milk Communications Director Paul Flanagan said, “We need to continue to be profitable in order to have funds to re-invest in business development, but our priority remains, absolutely, to deliver improved returns to members and £2m of that profit figure has indeed been delivered back to our member producers by way of the 6 per cent return on members’ invested capital.”

Last week it was announced that First Milk’s producers in cheese and balancing pools will receive price increases of 0.38p, raising their price per litre to 25.50p, effective retroactively from 1st July. Farmers in the liquid pool will receive an extra 0.2p, increasing price paid per litre to 25.4p.

First milk said this was because of “further business efficiencies and better market returns from cheese.” However, NFU Scotland said that price rises, announced two days after the UK came out bottom on the European milk price league table, with UK farmers receiving 4ppl below the EU average, did not go far enough.