The Militant (logo)  
   Vol. 68/No. 45           December 7, 2004  
 
 
UK farmers protest price cuts from milk distributor
 
BY PAUL DAVIES  
DIDCOT, England—Farmers and their supporters successfully blockaded the ASDA supermarket distribution center here, in Oxfordshire, the night of November 18, to protest recent cuts in the price they receive for milk they sell to distribution companies. The peaceful blockade by 30 farmers and others was organized by Farmers For Action (FFA). For four hours farmers left their vehicles in front of the center’s entrance, preventing lorries from picking up produce. The farmers had won an agreement from the police allowing the blockade to continue until 12.30 a.m. It followed similar actions organized in October at ASDA distribution centers in Wigan, Lancashire, and Wakefield, West Yorkshire, as well as Didcot and in Scotland.

“ASDA moved from three milk suppliers to just one, Arla, in September, and that supplier then cut the price farmers received by 0.4 pence a litre,” said Bruce Horn, a cattle farmer and Hampshire coordinator for FFA. “After our October actions Arla reversed the price cut, but only to the 600 farmers whose milk goes to ASDA. The other farmers who supply Arla still get the lower price for their milk. That is why we’ve come back to blockade this center. Once one supplier imposes a cut, the others start to do so.”

Milk Link, a dairy co-operative, also cut its price paid to farmers by 0.5 pence per litre to 17.45 pence [US$0.25] in October. “This is absolutely disgusting,” David Handley, national chairman of the FFA, told Farmers Weekly. “For five years we’ve been fighting processors on this issue and now we’ve got a co-op that is even worse.”

“Farmers with an average sized herd are getting a price for milk that barely covers production costs. For those with small herds it’s even less,” said another Hampshire farmer attending the blockade, who identified himself as Edward. “On top of the cuts in prices we get for milk, we’ve also had to face recent increases in the price of cattle food, fertilizer, and fuel. In the past two years the fertilizer I use has gone up from £120 a ton, to £190 a ton [£1=US$1.87]. We use about 150 tons a year so the price increase means an extra £10,000 plus on our annual outgoings. Diesel has gone up from 22 to 27 pence a litre.”

According to figures published last year by farm business consultants Andersons, average income for dairy farmers in 2003 was £18,000, or 40 percent of that received in 1995-97. Government statistics show 6,000 farmers and 11,000 laborers left farming in the 12 months up to the 2003 June census. Exploited family farmers in the United Kingdom have faced depression conditions for several years. According to more recent government figures, 13 farmers have been forced out of business every week in Northern Ireland alone this year.

“More and more farmers are being forced into debt,” explained Paul Knight, an agricultural contractor participating in the blockade. “When farmers are forced out these days they are not selling their land on to other farmers but burning their stock and city money is buying up the land,” added Edward.

Farmers from the southwest were also blockading the ASDA distribution center in Bristol on the same evening. “We’re ready to fight, and if necessary this won’t be the last blockade,” said John Lillywhite, another Hampshire dairy farmer, who had also participated in previous FFA actions last year.

In July, the FFA filed a complaint with the government’s Office of Fair Trading against three major UK dairy processors—Dairy Crest, Robert Wiseman Dairies, and Arla—for in effect working as a cartel. “Dairy Crest was the first to cut the milk price. Then Wiseman followed suit about a month later and dropped its price. And now we are hearing that Arla may drop its price,” said FFA chairman Handley.  
 
 
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