The SOS Dairy coalition has announced its plan of action, following a meeting to discuss the next steps for the campaign, held in Warwickshire last week.  

The coalition, which comprises a number of farming groups from across the UK was formed in July to support protesting farmers, who were fighting to reverse cuts inflicted by major processors, which would have seen farm-gate milk price plummeted 5 pence per litre below the current cost of production. Having achieved victory in forcing processors to rescind planned cuts, which were due to come into force at the beginning of the month, farmers have continued to demonstrate at premises owned by buyers they believe are contributing to unsustainable milk prices and perpetuating inequality in the dairy supply chain.

On Friday, representatives of the coalition met at the NFU offices in Stoneleigh to establish a new strategy to address the “crisis facing British dairy farmers” which it is hoped will “secure the long-term future of the British dairy industry.”

Following on from work undertaken by the coalition during the height of the dairy protests, which focused on providing information in the form of posters and resources for sharing on social media platforms to ‘name and shame’ malefactors in the supply chain, the constellation of groups announced that future actions would focus on three key areas including:

• Exposing bad practices
• Redefining and empowering the farmers’ role in the supply chain
• Ensuring the supply chain is transparent and fair.

Cheese also moved into the spotlight of the SOS Dairy campaign, as producers of processed dairy products have frequently been underrepresented in pricing discussions. Speaking after the meeting, NFU dairy board chair Mansel Raymond said, “The first priority of the Dairy Coalition of organisations is to see a fair and functioning market place for the UK dairy industry. We firmly believe that all farmers should receive a milk price which at least covers their costs to produce milk. This is the only way we will be able to ensure shoppers have the choice of British dairy products on supermarket shelves.”

He continued, “What is very clear is that the dairy market has failed. Market highs have not been passed down to the farm gate. We need to see all milk buyers developing their own appropriate and transparent milk procurement and pricing models that are equitable for all parties and cover farmers’ production costs.”

The Ten Point Plan:

• Expose those whose damaging behaviour undermines the liquid milk market.

• Work with milk buyer farmer representatives to ensure that representation is professional, independent and democratic, so that farmers’ interests are protected.

• Set out a roadmap to capture the maximum opportunity for Producer Organisations to rebalance the negotiating power within the milk supply chain and assist farmers wanting to set up POs or other collaborative organisations within the dairy sector.

• Work to finalise the code of good practice for dairy contracts.

• Develop a process to monitor and report on the implementation of the Code of Good Practice for Dairy Contracts, to ensure its earliest and complete adoption.

• Encourage all milk buyers to develop their own appropriate and transparent milk procurement and pricing models that are equitable for all parties and cover farmers’ production costs. Clearly, the coalition doesn’t seek to say what that model should be, but we want to see all milk buyers working to create their own models that deliver a fair and sustainable price for farmers.

• Expose bad practice or non-compliance with the Code of Good Practice and irresponsible behaviour in the milk market by developing a whistle-blower mechanism for farmers.

• Campaign to promote British cheese and other dairy products to consumers and to retailers, both in the domestic market and abroad.

• Work with DairyCo so farmers can utilise relevant market information published by DairyCo such as up-to-date global trends, league tables and dairy market predictions.

• Prepare an ambitious strategy for the UK dairy industry’s future without EU milk quotas, which takes full advantage of growing domestic and global demand for dairy products.

Tweet