Barbers, Belton Farm and Lactalis have all announced a hold on prices for April. This will he the seventh month in a row that Barber’s has held its standard litre price at 27p/litre.

Prices on the M&S contract is set for a 0.61ppl reduction, following five months of stable prices.Sainsbury’s suppliers will also see a  price reduction in April, of 0.05ppl, as a result of its quarterly cost tracker review.

Arla have announced a stand on April 1^st member milk price on both conventional and organic supplies with a small 0.15ppl quarterly currency adjustment.The resulting manufacturing standard litre price is 30.79ppl (39.83ppl organic) and based on a liquid standard litre 29.61ppl (38.3ppl organic).

Meadow Foods suppliers in South Wales have been informed that they join Meadows Cumbrian farmers in taking a 2ppl price cut from 1^st April. The resulting liquid standard litre price is 24ppl whilst those Meadow Suppliers closer to its Chester HQ remain on 26ppl.

A number of Meadow farmers hit with the reduction feel that they have been unfairly victimised and have concluded that whilst Meadow want to hold them to 12 months’ notice, the reality is they are no longer wanted and need to either find new homes for their milk or exit the industry.

One affected farmer summarised their position and thoughts as “It was a very heated meeting with Meadow Foods. We can’t survive at 24ppl and Meadow have let us down!”.

Freshways Medina farmers will see an eye watering 2ppl 29^th March short notice price. If that wasn’t enough, says ipaquotas.com, Freshways are also deferring paying their farmers for milk supplied by one extra month. So, March deliveries will be paid for on May 15^th rather than April 15^th.

In a letter to producers, Freshways suggested there were four options available and two of those options have been quickly executed and put extreme pressure on farmers viz, a 2ppl price drop coupled with extended payment terms.

Freshways are very focussed on London, which has seen almost all food service customers (coffee shops, hotels, restaurants etc.) put the shutters up. It’s a section of the Freshways business which accounts for more than 40% of their product outlets.

This is in complete contrast to many other liquid processors who are under extreme pressure to meet the additional demand spike for milk from stay at home consumers, many of whom have been panic buying.

Several Freshways farmers do not accept this is and have been advised it is a breach of contract.

Qualifying Muller Direct farmers are set to receive an extra 1p/L for May’s milk.

It means farmers supplying Muller who meet the conditions for the Muller Direct Premium 20201, will be paid 27.25p/L from May 1, 2020.