Morrisons has made a commitment not to accept further decreases in price from suppliers, however, farm unions have said more support is needed from milk buyers.
 
Morrisons this week announced that it would not accept further cost price decreases from its suppliers, but the NFU responded that retailers and producers must support dairy farmers by paying a sustainable price.
 
Farmers say they are now receiving milk prices far below the cost of production, which has led to demonstrations up and down the country.
 
NFU President Meurig Raymond said: “I don’t feel that [Morrisons’ announcement] goes far enough in these desperate times. I wish to see the retailer develop transparent pricing mechanisms, and long term relationships with their suppliers, that show support to the British dairy sector.
 
“We will be continuing discussions with Morrison’s in the coming weeks and we will keep pushing them to develop support mechanisms that work for them and the industry.
 
“Now we need to ensure that Morrisons’ performance on dairy delivers for British farmers as they already do on red meat and poultry.”

Last week a Morissons store in Gloucestershire became the centre of a protest by Young Farmers, who removed milk cartons from coolers, piled them in trolleys and left these at the checkout. In Scotland, farmers bought up milk from supermarkets and handed it to passers-by outside, to illustrate the losses they are making on their produce.