Glamorgan Dairy Strategy Roadshow Success
Farmgate milk prices should be going up and anything other than an upward price increase will not be tolerated, according tom NFU Dairy Board Chairman, Mansel Raymond.
20 April 2011
2 minute read
"For this to happen we will make our message heard loud and clear and take whatever responsible actions required to make sure dairy farmers’ voices are heard,” he told Welsh dairy farmers when the NFU Cymru Dairy Strategy Roadshow reached Glamorgan.
Held over two days the programme of meetings across Wales provided an ideal opportunity for members to have their input and steer the Union’s direction in developing a new strategy for the next decade in dairying.
It also gave the union a chance to road test a number of emerging ideas and themes with NFU Cymru’s dairy farming members.
The member meetings have focused on how the Union can address some of the problems in the dairy supply chain; how the huge potential opportunities to produce more milk for markets at home and abroad can be unlocked; and how milk contracts can be developed to create security in terms of price and volume with improved flexibility on where the product is sold.
John Lougher, NFU Cymru’s Milk Board Vice Chairman, who kindly hosted the meeting said: “Processors should be looking for new markets out there, they need to be looking elsewhere to market our product and higher value produce. This would generate some confidence and stability within the industry. The industry must move on and the export market opportunities for us have to be examined.”
Mr Lougher added: “Farmers have taken the opportunity to feed in their ideas and views to the Unions’ lobbying work. The EU Commission’s dairy package in particular has sparked a lot of interest.
"There are some exciting proposals on the table that could make a real difference to the way we sell our milk and negotiate with milk buyers.
"Many dairy farmers have expressed their wish to be able to sell their milk to more than one buyer and have more influence over the price they receive for it.
“These meetings have been challenging at times but our members have an important role to play in driving the direction of our strategy and it’s important for them to have their say. Above all, it is the dairy farmers who are doing the job day-in day-out who are best placed to know what can be improved.”
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