On November 11 more than 1,000 dairy farmers blockaded five distribution depots of the Somerfield supermarket chain in England. All five were closed down.

Mike Haskew, a dairy farmer in Herefordshire and vice-chair of Farmers for Action (FFA), which has been spearheading the protests, said the actions have been getting broader support. “More and more people are turning up,” he said. “Some are NFU [National Farmers Union] members, and many are farmers we have never seen out at protests before.”

The protests have been going on for the past two months. On October 28, for example, Militant reporters visited farmers picketing a distribution depot of Sainsbury, a supermarket retailer here in East Kilbride, southeast of Glasgow. By 8:00 p.m. Sainsbury’s entrances and exits were blockaded by farm equipment. Trucks couldn’t move in or out.

“We’re here till we get direct talks between [FFA chairman] David Handley and Dairy Crest,” said Alex Wilson, FFA representative for Scotland, speaking to more than 200 protesting dairy farmers. Dairy Crest is a major milk processing company that has been at the center of the price squeeze. “The supermarkets blame the processors and the processors blame the supermarkets,” Wilson reported.

Most dairy farmers sell their milk to processing companies, which then sell milk products and cheese, as well as liquid milk, on to the supermarket chains. The farmers are demanding that a price increase of 2 pence per liter (ppl) agreed by the supermarkets be paid to them.

Wilson explained that Asda-Walmart and Tesco, two supermarket giants whose distribution depots have already been targeted by angry dairy farmers, said they had told Dairy Crest to pay the 2ppl.

“Sainsbury has been particularly difficult—Dairy Crest and Glanbia claim Sainsbury are not paying the extra 2 pence on cheese,” the FFA leader said, referring to two milk processors. “We want no more secrets in this industry. Our numbers are growing and all seven Sainsbury depots are shut down tonight.”

After several hours of this coordinated action, the picket was lifted when Sainsbury agreed to discuss the price issue with Dairy Crest.

While most of the actions have been relatively calm, an October 16 demonstration by 600 farmers and their supporters at Dairy Crest in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England, were roughly manhandled by more than 70 cops. Another 600 assembled at Nuneaton that day.

In mid-October some 150 dairy farmers from Scotland and England maintained a 12-hour blockade outside the Dairy Crest plant in Cumbria, England (Dairy Crest has no plants in Scotland).

A number of protesting farmers who spoke to Militant reporters explained that they used to receive better prices from the Milk Marketing Board (MMB). Abolished in 1994, the MMB had been established by the government in 1933. All farmers were legally required to sell their milk through the MMB, which negotiated a price with the Dairy Trade Federation, representing the dairy processing bosses.

By establishing a monopoly over milk sales it was possible to restrict the big dairy processing companies’ ability to profit from competition among farmers in the marketplace. Farmers were paid a “pooled price” for the milk that they delivered to the MMB, and were charged the same for delivery and haulage costs. Bigger farmers closer to the processing plants would effectively subsidize smaller farmers more distant from the plants.  
 
Big dairies drive down prices
The abolition of the MMB by the previous Conservative Party government opened the door for the big dairies to start driving down the prices paid to farmers. Recently, dairy farmers have been receiving about half or less of the final selling price for milk.

The FFA is working on proposals for a national milk agency that they hope to use to get farmers a higher percentage of the final selling price. Robert Lawrie of the government’s Office of Fair Trading has told FFA representatives that they have “the green light to start developing details of the agency.”

The Farmers Union of Wales has called for a public forum to discuss the industry’s costs and pricing structures. “Between 1992 and 2002 some 30 percent of Welsh dairy farmers quit the industry, and unless the economics improve we will see further hemorrhaging of producers,” the group said in a statement.

On October 17 a press release announcing an “unprecedented move for common action by British and Irish farmers,” was released jointly by the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) and the British FFA. The two organizations announced the establishment of the British and Irish Dairy Farmers’ Forum to “combine and co-ordinate efforts to combat the growing power” of the chains. The ICMSA represents 26,000 dairy farmers in the Republic of Ireland.

Paul Davies in London contributed to this article.  
 
 
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