Milk for Farmers offers consumers 'choice to support dairy farmers directly': Morrisons
Morrisons announced yesterday that 10 pence per litre from the sale of Morrisons Milk for Farmers, which will hit shelves across the UK in Autumn, will be passed directly to the Arla Foods dairy farmers that produce it.
"We recognise that the current market for liquid milk is impacting on hard working dairy farmers and their families," Morrisons said in a statement. "We want to help."
"We will stock this product in all our stores, offering our customers the choice to support dairy farmers directly."
Four pint (2.27 litres) bottles of Morrisons Milk for Farmers will sit on shelves alongside the retailer's own-brand standard price milk.
Morrisons, Britain's fourth largest retailer, added that it has asked its milk suppliers, including Arla Foods, not to pass any further farm gate milk price (FGMP) decreases on to its farmer owners.
In July, Arla Foods announced that from August 3 it was reducing its FGMP by 0.8 pence per litre to 23.01 pence - significantly less than the 30 to 32 pence per litre it costs dairy farmers in the UK to produce milk.
British retailers, including Morrisons, have been by a series of in-store demonstrations by struggling dairy farmers in recent weeks.
Earlier this month, dairy farmers protesting the low retail price of fresh milk removed large quantities of the product from stores - a campaign Farmers for Action (FFA) called the Milk Trolley Dash.
Days later, farmers led two cows into an Asda store in Stafford.
The National Farmers Union (NFU), which met with Morrisons representatives last week, called the retailer's decision to launch Milk for Farmers "a welcome first step."
"We are pleased that Morrison's has acknowledged the desperate situation that farmers find themselves in and that retailers have a role to play in finding a solution," said Rob Harrison, chairman of the NFU Dairy Board.
"Shoppers have been telling us, as well as independent studies, that they are willing to pay more for milk and today's announcement from Morrison's will enable them to do just that."
"Now is the time to back British farming and we need to see Morrison's customers choosing to spend just a few pence extra on milk, in order to ensure this nutritious, high quality, British produce stays on the shelves for years to come," Harrison added.
