As Tesco begins a whole sale roll down of prices, to (they say) benefit consumers some serious concerns are being expressed about the consequences for our farmers and suppliers. Welsh farmers and food suppliers are concerned that the prices they receive for their produce are going to get driven down, as Tesco will make efforts to avoid cutting its profits.
With Tesco dropping some of its prices and effectively declaring a Price War on its commercial rivals and competitors, the question is whose going to pay for it? The £500 million pound 'Big Price Drop' is an attempt to maintain Tesco’s share of the market rather than grow it. The real question is will the Tesco shareholders or management be the ones who absorb the pain of the cuts? Or the farmers and suppliers?
The National Farmers Union (NFU) Cymru and the Farmers Union of Wales have serious concerns is about the prices farmers get paid for their produce. Their experience tells them that the larger food retailers often expect their suppliers to share the pain of any cut in retail pricing.
Tesco already has what could be described as a fraught relationship with some of the farmers it uses to source its products. The National Farmers Union has talked openly about a ‘Climate of fear’ in the (monopoly) world of modern food retail, where the small producers are too scared to speak out about the abuses that are impoverishing them because they may run the risk of reprisals and lose the only customers there are for their produce.
The Con Dem Government, just like it's New Labour predecessor, has been dragging its feet about the prospect of legislation to create a supermarket watchdog to investigate alleged breaches of the Grocery Suppliers Code of Practice. The code was introduced after the Competition Commission found large retailers were passing on excessive risks and unexpected costs to their suppliers.
Part of the problem may be that the Political parties may have readily got used to some of the perks of having a close relationship with the Supermarkets (or power companies, etc) with their glossy adverts in conference brochures, free food at funded functions, etc. One very old rule is that once you sell your virtue it stays sold, and once you sell your principles they stay bought and the end result is that the fabric of our democracy is damaged or tainted, and nothing in this life is free.
Perhaps a more pertinent question to ask would be what do they (the Supermarkets) get for their money? Or at least what are they seeking in lieu of their donations? Or even when do they get it? The answer may well be a weak and watered down Supermarket Ombudsman - which is the last thing any of us needs, whether as a customer, a supplier or a farmer.
Showing posts with label Farmers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Farmers. Show all posts
Tuesday, 27 September 2011
Saturday, 24 September 2011
DEVELOPMENT COSTS
The first quarter of the 21st Century may be written up by future Historians as the years when the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) rose to greatness and flexed its muscles on a global if not an imperial scale. Future historians may also note that these were the years when the PRC's influence in sub Saharan Africa grew at an exponential rate. There has been an almost imperial acquisition of resources in the sub-Sahara with one of the most sweeping, bare-knuckled, and bare faced acquisition of resource to feed the PRC's population and it's economy.
The USA (and the West) have been struggling economically and politically with the consequences of the War on Terror and the consequences of the World wide Banking crisis. In barely a few years, the PRC has become one of the more aggressive investor-states in Africa. This admittedly commercial invasion has been (and is) probably the most important economic and political development in the sub-Sahara since the Cold War ended, the economic map of the world has been quietly redrawn.
There are more Chinese citizens resident in Nigeria than there were Brits during the height of their empire. Chinese state-owned and state-linked corporations and small entrepreneurs have roll led across the continent in an almost unstoppable wave. It has been estimated that potentially around a million Chinese citizens are at work in sub-Saharan Africa. The PRC has created collateral economies and population monuments across the continent as it searches for and seeks to develop and control minerals and food resources.
No other world power has come close to showing the same interest (or muscle for that matter) or sought to cosy up to Africa's leaders. Now this is no War on Terror, democracy (flawed or not) is no being encouraged, nurtured or spread by the PRC - this is solely about finding what the PRC needs to feed China (figuratively and literally). Aside for having a political impact and snaffling up increasingly scare resources there has been an impact within the Sub Saharan African nations.
This has been manifested as trade unions begin to fight against some pretty grim (PRC imposed) working conditions (obviously and somewhat ironically the People's Republic of China (a notional communist and pretty repressive state) is obviously no great lover of any real trade union's and any political opposition for that matter. And as indigenous local farmers (and their families) find themselves pushed off their land as governments swayed by the PRC's largess sells the land form underneath them. Pro and anti Chinese candidates fight elections in those Sub Saharan states where meaningful elections take place that is, and you can guess which ones get the benefits of PRC funding.
Monday, 30 May 2011
CRYING OVER SPILT MILK
Successive UK Governments (both Conservative and Labour) have failed to take any meaningful action to help our dairy farmers. Why? Well the cynic or the realist (in me) suspects that this is either down to a combination of nice financial inducements from large Supermarkets and / or a general indifference to the agricultural sector. We, as consumers also have to take a share of the blame because we allowed all of these things to happen, if we want quality milk and dairy products (that are produce from UK milk) then we will have to change the way we buy, if we do that then out farmers will get a better deal.
It's worth noting that the number of dairy farmers in Wales dropped by a third in five years (up to December 2009) and this despite repeated warnings that more needed to be done to save the industry along with the fact that our farmers are also not getting a fair price for the milk they produce, when compared to the price charged by retailers to consumers, will sadly not come as much of a surprise to most people.
There was even prior to the last Westminster General election some talk of a milk ombudsman, but it needs to be more than talk, there is a need for action, before our dairy farmers (and our farmers) are driven out of business entirely. What may follow if nothing is done may not be pretty, it may be semi industrial and serviced by cheap migrant Labour. Supermarkets as well as their bought tame politicos in the Westminster village (is that too harsh? No probably not) have to take a share of the blame for aggressively pursuing ever greater shares of the profit.
When considering the price of a pint of milk there are a few things we should all know. One litre carton of full-fat, non-organic milk can cost between 70-80p (January 2010 figures). From this a farmer will get between 21p and 28p. Production costs come in at around 28p. In the last 10 years two thirds of dairy farmers in England and Wales have gone out of business, and it has been estimated that one dairy farmer leaves the industry every day. While these may be old figures, the situation has not got any easier for the farmers or the consumers, they more than illustrate the problem facing our farmers, especially as we now have to factor in increased transport costs.
The shelf price for four pints has remained static at £1.25 for 4 pints since February 2011, and widespread promotions continue to be offered on liquid milk in May with Sainsburys and Asda offering 2 x 4 pints for £2.00 and Tesco offering 3 x 4 pints for £3.00. Supermarkets are also widely offering branded and organic milk on promotion in May.
DEFRA's annual data shows that the UK farm gate price has increased by 0.95 pence per litre (4.0%) to 24.66 pence per litre in 2010. In UK, there was a 0.22 pence per litre (0.9%) increase from the 2009 average, to 24.60 pence per litre in 2010. The average NI price stood at 19.48 pence per litre in 2009, but there was a 5.56 pence per litre (28.5%) increase in the average price in 2010, resulting in a 2010 price of 25.04 pence per litre.
The old answer to low milk prices or a surplus was to turn excess milk into other dairy products, with dairies producing other valuable products like butter, cream, cheese and yoghurt's. How many local Welsh dairies serving our urban centres that are still in business can you name? Milk aside, diary products can be big business. A 25 pence litre of milk can end up as something that sells for 15 times as much, people pay good money for ‘health yogurt’ – which with the addition of bacteria, flavouring and a marketing campaign produce healthy profits for the companies that produce them.
It is worth noting that some 40 per cent of our yogurt is made in France and Belgium, in 2009 more than 40 per cent of all Cheddar sold in the UK was actually produced outside of the UK. Its not just yogurt and cheese; it's a similar story with butter. Only one of the most popular supermarket brands [Country Life] is actually from UK milk. The bulk of our butter comes from Denmark and Ireland, and this is despite the fact that farm gate prices for milk remain consistently higher in Europe than here in the UK.
We (in the UK) when compared with 11 years ago now import nearly half our butter from abroad, cheese imports are also up, some 60 percent over the last ten years. In the UK we are importing those products that have added-value and are busy exporting the low-value milk products which are then turned into butter, yogurt, etc and sold back to us. This is madness; this is what happens in the Third World, where countries export their raw commodities cheaply and then have little choice but to buy back the manufactured products that are made from their own raw materials.
The NFU has suggested, and they should know, that the UK is in the process of losing a critical mass of milk suppliers and that we are no longer in a position where we supply the UK's “core milk requirement” which is around some 13 billion litres per year (2010 figures). In 2009 / 2010 year there was a 15 percent drop in UK Milk prices. In the last 10 years (up to 2010) the Supermarkets’ margins that is the the amount of the price they take on milk have doubled.
Now with a trend for both the processor and retailer to be the same, we have a situation where they take over three quarters of the price of a pint. We have now reached the situation where in a land renowned for Dairy farming and where even though the price of our milk is cheap, we are now become a net importer of milk.
Ironically it was a development of railway communications during the industrial revolution that provided the means to speedily deliver the farmers milk to our towns and cities and ironically as a knock on effect there was a spread of diary production. It is doubly ironic that the first supermarkets (ironically in Sainsbury’s in Covent Garden, London, in 1869) sold what was then called “railway milk” from churns. The milkman arrived next delivering direct to our doorsteps, his near demise followed some years later was a direct result of super market price-cutting which has now, more or less, effectively killed him off.
The UK Government as early as 1914 recognised that milk was important for nutrition in children, that it helped prevent rickets, and provided vitamins. And so the first government attempts to regulate milk's supply and quality came about. Pasteurization was duly brought in to kill of certain bacteria. We now have low fat milk, slimmed milk, semi skimmed milk, etc – one thing to think about is that full fat milk is only 4 percent fat, low fat milk being 2 percent (or less) and that milk is approximately 95 percent water anyway.
During the good times, pre Mrs Thatcher, the banks fell over themselves throwing credit at framers to encourage them to (as the Government and the EU wanted) to ever expand their production. Once Mrs T (and the Conservatives) who was never interested in farming anyway, being far to enamoured of dodgy money men in the City, allowed Milk quota's (effective cuts) the bad times had begun for our Dairy farmers and oddly enough the banks stopped calling with offers of cheap credit.
What can best be described as industrial milk production is not without its problems – slurry production being one of them, which can be enormously toxic and environmentally damaging. Something else to consider is that modern cows to produce large amounts of cheap milk, a While a modern Frisian may produce as much 4 times as much milk as equivalent cows did 50 years it only has three milking years in which to do it.
We, as consumers also have to take a share of the blame because we allowed all of these things to happen, if we want quality milk and dairy products (that are produce from UK milk) then we will have to change the way we buy, if we do that then out farmers will get a better deal. I won't be holding my breath for the Con Dem Government to get its act together and finally wake up and pull the fat (or the milk) out of the fire...they won't. So what are we going to do?
It's worth noting that the number of dairy farmers in Wales dropped by a third in five years (up to December 2009) and this despite repeated warnings that more needed to be done to save the industry along with the fact that our farmers are also not getting a fair price for the milk they produce, when compared to the price charged by retailers to consumers, will sadly not come as much of a surprise to most people.
There was even prior to the last Westminster General election some talk of a milk ombudsman, but it needs to be more than talk, there is a need for action, before our dairy farmers (and our farmers) are driven out of business entirely. What may follow if nothing is done may not be pretty, it may be semi industrial and serviced by cheap migrant Labour. Supermarkets as well as their bought tame politicos in the Westminster village (is that too harsh? No probably not) have to take a share of the blame for aggressively pursuing ever greater shares of the profit.
When considering the price of a pint of milk there are a few things we should all know. One litre carton of full-fat, non-organic milk can cost between 70-80p (January 2010 figures). From this a farmer will get between 21p and 28p. Production costs come in at around 28p. In the last 10 years two thirds of dairy farmers in England and Wales have gone out of business, and it has been estimated that one dairy farmer leaves the industry every day. While these may be old figures, the situation has not got any easier for the farmers or the consumers, they more than illustrate the problem facing our farmers, especially as we now have to factor in increased transport costs.
The shelf price for four pints has remained static at £1.25 for 4 pints since February 2011, and widespread promotions continue to be offered on liquid milk in May with Sainsburys and Asda offering 2 x 4 pints for £2.00 and Tesco offering 3 x 4 pints for £3.00. Supermarkets are also widely offering branded and organic milk on promotion in May.
DEFRA's annual data shows that the UK farm gate price has increased by 0.95 pence per litre (4.0%) to 24.66 pence per litre in 2010. In UK, there was a 0.22 pence per litre (0.9%) increase from the 2009 average, to 24.60 pence per litre in 2010. The average NI price stood at 19.48 pence per litre in 2009, but there was a 5.56 pence per litre (28.5%) increase in the average price in 2010, resulting in a 2010 price of 25.04 pence per litre.
The old answer to low milk prices or a surplus was to turn excess milk into other dairy products, with dairies producing other valuable products like butter, cream, cheese and yoghurt's. How many local Welsh dairies serving our urban centres that are still in business can you name? Milk aside, diary products can be big business. A 25 pence litre of milk can end up as something that sells for 15 times as much, people pay good money for ‘health yogurt’ – which with the addition of bacteria, flavouring and a marketing campaign produce healthy profits for the companies that produce them.
It is worth noting that some 40 per cent of our yogurt is made in France and Belgium, in 2009 more than 40 per cent of all Cheddar sold in the UK was actually produced outside of the UK. Its not just yogurt and cheese; it's a similar story with butter. Only one of the most popular supermarket brands [Country Life] is actually from UK milk. The bulk of our butter comes from Denmark and Ireland, and this is despite the fact that farm gate prices for milk remain consistently higher in Europe than here in the UK.
We (in the UK) when compared with 11 years ago now import nearly half our butter from abroad, cheese imports are also up, some 60 percent over the last ten years. In the UK we are importing those products that have added-value and are busy exporting the low-value milk products which are then turned into butter, yogurt, etc and sold back to us. This is madness; this is what happens in the Third World, where countries export their raw commodities cheaply and then have little choice but to buy back the manufactured products that are made from their own raw materials.
The NFU has suggested, and they should know, that the UK is in the process of losing a critical mass of milk suppliers and that we are no longer in a position where we supply the UK's “core milk requirement” which is around some 13 billion litres per year (2010 figures). In 2009 / 2010 year there was a 15 percent drop in UK Milk prices. In the last 10 years (up to 2010) the Supermarkets’ margins that is the the amount of the price they take on milk have doubled.
Now with a trend for both the processor and retailer to be the same, we have a situation where they take over three quarters of the price of a pint. We have now reached the situation where in a land renowned for Dairy farming and where even though the price of our milk is cheap, we are now become a net importer of milk.
Ironically it was a development of railway communications during the industrial revolution that provided the means to speedily deliver the farmers milk to our towns and cities and ironically as a knock on effect there was a spread of diary production. It is doubly ironic that the first supermarkets (ironically in Sainsbury’s in Covent Garden, London, in 1869) sold what was then called “railway milk” from churns. The milkman arrived next delivering direct to our doorsteps, his near demise followed some years later was a direct result of super market price-cutting which has now, more or less, effectively killed him off.
The UK Government as early as 1914 recognised that milk was important for nutrition in children, that it helped prevent rickets, and provided vitamins. And so the first government attempts to regulate milk's supply and quality came about. Pasteurization was duly brought in to kill of certain bacteria. We now have low fat milk, slimmed milk, semi skimmed milk, etc – one thing to think about is that full fat milk is only 4 percent fat, low fat milk being 2 percent (or less) and that milk is approximately 95 percent water anyway.
During the good times, pre Mrs Thatcher, the banks fell over themselves throwing credit at framers to encourage them to (as the Government and the EU wanted) to ever expand their production. Once Mrs T (and the Conservatives) who was never interested in farming anyway, being far to enamoured of dodgy money men in the City, allowed Milk quota's (effective cuts) the bad times had begun for our Dairy farmers and oddly enough the banks stopped calling with offers of cheap credit.
What can best be described as industrial milk production is not without its problems – slurry production being one of them, which can be enormously toxic and environmentally damaging. Something else to consider is that modern cows to produce large amounts of cheap milk, a While a modern Frisian may produce as much 4 times as much milk as equivalent cows did 50 years it only has three milking years in which to do it.
We, as consumers also have to take a share of the blame because we allowed all of these things to happen, if we want quality milk and dairy products (that are produce from UK milk) then we will have to change the way we buy, if we do that then out farmers will get a better deal. I won't be holding my breath for the Con Dem Government to get its act together and finally wake up and pull the fat (or the milk) out of the fire...they won't. So what are we going to do?
Wednesday, 18 May 2011
WRONG ANSWER...
First Minister Carwyn Jones's decision not to include a rural affairs minister in his new Welsh Government cabinet, while disappointing is not a surprise. The decision to opt for a deputy agriculture minister rather than a rural affairs minister at cabinet level, means that two cabinet ministers would have split responsibilities for farming. So much for farming interests being well represented, in the last One Wales Assembly government our farmers were well represented by a Rural Affairs Minister (Plaid's Elin Jones) who fought hard for our farmers and ensured that their voice and their concerns were heard. While it's early days with this Labour government, this is not a good sign and suggests that Labour has failed to recognise the importance of agriculture to the Welsh economy, and may suggest that Labour has little concern or interest for the future of rural Wales and our farming communities.
Tuesday, 27 July 2010
HOW MUCH?
When you consider the price of a pint (milk not beer), there are some things we should all be aware of. Firstly, a litre carton of full-fat, non-organic milk can cost between 70-80p of the shelf. Secondly, from this princely sum, a farmer will get between 21p and 28p. Thirdly, you can add in production costs off around 28p. Ouch! No wonder during the last 11 years some two thirds of dairy farmers in England and Wales have gone out of business, and finally it has been estimated that one dairy farmer leaves the industry every day.
Pretty grim reading, even grimmer if you are living it. Now historically the answer to low milk prices or a surplus was to turn excess milk into other dairy products, with dairies producing other valuable products like butter, cream, cheese and yoghurt's. Milk aside, diary products are big business, especially when you consider that a 25 pence litre of milk may end up as something that sells for 15 times as much. People are prepared to pay good money for ‘health yogurt’ – which with the addition of bacteria, flavouring and a marketing campaign produce pretty healthy profits for the companies that produce them.
Here's something else to think about, around 40 per cent of our yogurt is made in France and Belgium, in 2009 more than 40 per cent of all Cheddar sold in the UK was produced overseas. It’s a pretty similar story when it comes to our butter. Only one of the most popular supermarket brands [Country Life] is actually from UK sourced milk. The vast bulk of our butter comes from Denmark and Ireland, and this is despite the fact that farm gate prices for milk remain consistently higher in Europe than here in the UK.
We (in the UK) when compared with 10 years ago are now importing nearly half our butter from abroad, cheese imports are also up, around 60 percent over the last ten years. We are importing those products that have added-value and are exporting the low-value milk products which are then ironically turned back into butter, yogurt, etc and sold back to us. This is madness; this is what happens in the Third World, where countries export their raw commodities cheaply and then have little choice but to buy back the manufactured products that are made from their own raw materials. Successive UK Governments both Conservative and New Labour have sat back and allowed this to happen.
The NFU has suggested (and believe me they should know) that the UK is in the process of losing a critical mass of milk suppliers and that we are no longer in a position where we supply the UK's “core milk requirement” which is around some 13 billion litres per year. In the last year there has been a 15 percent drop in UK Milk prices. In the last 10 years the Supermarkets’ margins (that is the the amount of the price they take on milk) have doubled in ten years. Now with a trend for both the processor and retailer to be the same, we have a situation where they take over three quarters of the price of a pint. We have now reached the situation where in a land renowned for Dairy farming and where even though the price of our milk is cheap, we are now become a net importer of milk.
The development of railway communications during the industrial revolution provided the means to deliver the farmers milk to our towns and cities and ironically as a knock on effect there was an increase and greater spread of diary production. It is doubly ironic that the first supermarkets (Sainsbury’s in Covent Garden, London, in 1869) sold what was then called “railway milk” from churns. The milkman arrived next delivering direct to our doorsteps, his near demise which followed some years later was a direct result of super market price-cutting which has now, more or less, effectively killed him off.
As as early as 1914, the UK Government recognised that milk was pretty important for nutrition in children, that it helped prevent rickets, and provided vitamins. And so the first government attempts to regulate milk’s supply and quality came about. Pasteurization was duly brought in to kill of certain bacteria. We now have low fat milk, slimmed milk, semi skimmed milk, etc – it is worth remembering that full fat milk is only 4 percent fat, low fat milk being 2 percent (or less) and that milk is approximately 95 percent water anyway.
If is worth further remembering that during the good times, pre Mrs Thatcher, the banks positively fell over themselves throwing credit at framers to encourage them to (as both the UK Government and the EU wanted) to ever expand their production. Once Mrs T and the Conservatives who were never particularly interested in farming anyway, being far to enamored of dodgy loads of money men in the City, allowed Milk quota’s (effective cuts) the bad times had begun to roll for our Dairy farmers and oddly enough the banks stopped calling with offers of cheap credit.
Note as well that What can best be described as industrial milk production is (and was) not without its problems – slurry production being one of them, which can be enormously toxic and environmentally damaging. Something else to consider is that modern cows to produce large amounts of cheap milk, a While a modern Frisian may produce as much 4 times as much milk as equivalent cows did 50 years it only has three milking years in which to do it.
The talk of a milk ombudsman is welcome, but it needs to be more than talk (it will need real teeth), there is a need for action, before our dairy farmers (and our farmers) are driven out of business entirely. What may follow if nothing is done may not be very pretty, it may be semi industrial and serviced by cheap migrant Labour. Supermarkets have to take a share of the blame for aggressively pursuing ever greater shares of the profit.
Successive UK Governments (both Conservative and Labour) have also failed to take any meaningful action – this either being down to a combination of nice financial inducements from large Supermarkets and / or a general indifference to the agricultural sector. We, as consumers also have to take a share of the blame because we allowed all of these things to happen, if we want quality milk and dairy products (that are produce from UK milk) then we will have to change the way we buy, if we do that then out farmers will get a better deal. Sadly I suspect that I won't be holding my breath for the current Con Dem Government to pull the fat (or the milk) out of the fire...
Pretty grim reading, even grimmer if you are living it. Now historically the answer to low milk prices or a surplus was to turn excess milk into other dairy products, with dairies producing other valuable products like butter, cream, cheese and yoghurt's. Milk aside, diary products are big business, especially when you consider that a 25 pence litre of milk may end up as something that sells for 15 times as much. People are prepared to pay good money for ‘health yogurt’ – which with the addition of bacteria, flavouring and a marketing campaign produce pretty healthy profits for the companies that produce them.
Here's something else to think about, around 40 per cent of our yogurt is made in France and Belgium, in 2009 more than 40 per cent of all Cheddar sold in the UK was produced overseas. It’s a pretty similar story when it comes to our butter. Only one of the most popular supermarket brands [Country Life] is actually from UK sourced milk. The vast bulk of our butter comes from Denmark and Ireland, and this is despite the fact that farm gate prices for milk remain consistently higher in Europe than here in the UK.
We (in the UK) when compared with 10 years ago are now importing nearly half our butter from abroad, cheese imports are also up, around 60 percent over the last ten years. We are importing those products that have added-value and are exporting the low-value milk products which are then ironically turned back into butter, yogurt, etc and sold back to us. This is madness; this is what happens in the Third World, where countries export their raw commodities cheaply and then have little choice but to buy back the manufactured products that are made from their own raw materials. Successive UK Governments both Conservative and New Labour have sat back and allowed this to happen.
The NFU has suggested (and believe me they should know) that the UK is in the process of losing a critical mass of milk suppliers and that we are no longer in a position where we supply the UK's “core milk requirement” which is around some 13 billion litres per year. In the last year there has been a 15 percent drop in UK Milk prices. In the last 10 years the Supermarkets’ margins (that is the the amount of the price they take on milk) have doubled in ten years. Now with a trend for both the processor and retailer to be the same, we have a situation where they take over three quarters of the price of a pint. We have now reached the situation where in a land renowned for Dairy farming and where even though the price of our milk is cheap, we are now become a net importer of milk.
The development of railway communications during the industrial revolution provided the means to deliver the farmers milk to our towns and cities and ironically as a knock on effect there was an increase and greater spread of diary production. It is doubly ironic that the first supermarkets (Sainsbury’s in Covent Garden, London, in 1869) sold what was then called “railway milk” from churns. The milkman arrived next delivering direct to our doorsteps, his near demise which followed some years later was a direct result of super market price-cutting which has now, more or less, effectively killed him off.
As as early as 1914, the UK Government recognised that milk was pretty important for nutrition in children, that it helped prevent rickets, and provided vitamins. And so the first government attempts to regulate milk’s supply and quality came about. Pasteurization was duly brought in to kill of certain bacteria. We now have low fat milk, slimmed milk, semi skimmed milk, etc – it is worth remembering that full fat milk is only 4 percent fat, low fat milk being 2 percent (or less) and that milk is approximately 95 percent water anyway.
If is worth further remembering that during the good times, pre Mrs Thatcher, the banks positively fell over themselves throwing credit at framers to encourage them to (as both the UK Government and the EU wanted) to ever expand their production. Once Mrs T and the Conservatives who were never particularly interested in farming anyway, being far to enamored of dodgy loads of money men in the City, allowed Milk quota’s (effective cuts) the bad times had begun to roll for our Dairy farmers and oddly enough the banks stopped calling with offers of cheap credit.
Note as well that What can best be described as industrial milk production is (and was) not without its problems – slurry production being one of them, which can be enormously toxic and environmentally damaging. Something else to consider is that modern cows to produce large amounts of cheap milk, a While a modern Frisian may produce as much 4 times as much milk as equivalent cows did 50 years it only has three milking years in which to do it.
The talk of a milk ombudsman is welcome, but it needs to be more than talk (it will need real teeth), there is a need for action, before our dairy farmers (and our farmers) are driven out of business entirely. What may follow if nothing is done may not be very pretty, it may be semi industrial and serviced by cheap migrant Labour. Supermarkets have to take a share of the blame for aggressively pursuing ever greater shares of the profit.
Successive UK Governments (both Conservative and Labour) have also failed to take any meaningful action – this either being down to a combination of nice financial inducements from large Supermarkets and / or a general indifference to the agricultural sector. We, as consumers also have to take a share of the blame because we allowed all of these things to happen, if we want quality milk and dairy products (that are produce from UK milk) then we will have to change the way we buy, if we do that then out farmers will get a better deal. Sadly I suspect that I won't be holding my breath for the current Con Dem Government to pull the fat (or the milk) out of the fire...
Tuesday, 13 July 2010
STILL WAITING FOR A SUPERMARKET OMBUDSMAN?
Before the election, when every prospective politician was the farmers friend (or claimed to be at least) there was much talk from the big 3 London based parties about the need for a Supermarket Ombudsman. With potential votes in the offing all of a sudden it seemed a very good idea, especially if you were a Conservative, Liberal Democrat or Labour Party candidate, to talk up the prospects of having a Supermarket Ombudsman (with real teeth) who might be capable of protecting both the consumer, the supplier and the farmer from some of the more harsher aspects of monopolistic capitalism as practised by certain supermarkets.
Now don't get me wrong a Supermarket Ombudsman is a good idea and a measure of protection for the customer, the supplier and the farmers is a good idea that has (and is) long overdue - but it does seem to have gone awfully quiet since the election. When I was clearing my spare room I came across a hastily scribbled note from 2006 (probably in preparation for a Conference speech in 2006 / 2007) which even though we are a few years down the line should give most people some food for thought:
A good and pertinent question to ask would be what do they (the Supermarkets) get for their money? or at least what are they seeking in lieu of their donations? The answer may well be a weak and watered down Supermarket Ombudsman - which is the last thing any of us needs, whether as a customer, a supplier or a farmer. Another question that needs to be asked is whatever did happen to that much vaunted pre-election idea of a Supermarket Ombudsman?
So far, not a lot...
Now don't get me wrong a Supermarket Ombudsman is a good idea and a measure of protection for the customer, the supplier and the farmers is a good idea that has (and is) long overdue - but it does seem to have gone awfully quiet since the election. When I was clearing my spare room I came across a hastily scribbled note from 2006 (probably in preparation for a Conference speech in 2006 / 2007) which even though we are a few years down the line should give most people some food for thought:
- The big '5' (in 2006) controlled almost 80% of the grocery sales in the UK
- Between 1995 and 2000 the UK lost one fifth of its local shops and local services - local post offices, local butchers, local branches of banks, grocers, etc
- The supermarkets have made and regular large donations (in cash or kind) to both New Labour, the Conservatives and other political parties.
- 54 years ago farmers received between 45 and 60% of the money that consumers spent on food.
- In 2006 it was just 7% in the UK, 3.5% int he USA and 18% in France.
- Gate prices don't make anything like a fair comparison with final Shelf price - in the UK farmers got (in 2006) something like 8 - 13% bellow the EU average gate price.
A good and pertinent question to ask would be what do they (the Supermarkets) get for their money? or at least what are they seeking in lieu of their donations? The answer may well be a weak and watered down Supermarket Ombudsman - which is the last thing any of us needs, whether as a customer, a supplier or a farmer. Another question that needs to be asked is whatever did happen to that much vaunted pre-election idea of a Supermarket Ombudsman?
So far, not a lot...
Thursday, 8 July 2010
CHEERS!
The cross party Rural Development Sub-Committee in the National Assembly has recommended that Wales should promote its wine, cider and beer industries to mirror the success of countries like New Zealand. This recognition of the economic potential of the home-grown drinks industry is to be welcomed. Anyone who has attended (and if you haven't then I strongly recommend that you consider it!) the Abergavenny Food Festival which is being held between the 17th and the 19th of September this year, will recognise the diversity and number of small scale cider, beer and wine producers from within the old county of Gwent and elsewhere in Wales and beyond.
The timely reports wants support for research into barley and hop cultivation and a reform of "beer ties", which force landlords to buy from pub owners and says that newcomers to the growing industry newcomers should have government guidance and advice – which has been welcomed by brewers and consumers' groups. The report goes on to offer the growth and development of the New Zealand's wine industry as a good example for producers in Wales to learn from.
Its not just about production though, there is more to it that that, the report has stated that the Welsh Assembly Government should work with Welsh brewers to help design and develop a marketing campaign which can help further promote Wales as a country of small breweries producing quality beer. There is also recognition of the need for government guidance to help our farmers make the most of potential opportunities to diversify into growing crops which can be used for brewing or apples for cider making.
The timely reports wants support for research into barley and hop cultivation and a reform of "beer ties", which force landlords to buy from pub owners and says that newcomers to the growing industry newcomers should have government guidance and advice – which has been welcomed by brewers and consumers' groups. The report goes on to offer the growth and development of the New Zealand's wine industry as a good example for producers in Wales to learn from.
Its not just about production though, there is more to it that that, the report has stated that the Welsh Assembly Government should work with Welsh brewers to help design and develop a marketing campaign which can help further promote Wales as a country of small breweries producing quality beer. There is also recognition of the need for government guidance to help our farmers make the most of potential opportunities to diversify into growing crops which can be used for brewing or apples for cider making.
Thursday, 21 January 2010
THE PRICE OF A PINT?
When considering the price of a pint, and I am talking milk here, there are a few things we should all know. One litre carton of full-fat, non-organic milk can cost between 70-80p. From this a farmer will get between 21p and 28p. Production costs come in at around 28p. In the last 10 years two thirds of dairy farmers in England and Wales have gone out of business, and it has been estimated that one dairy farmer leaves the industry every day.
Historically the answer to low milk prices or a surplus was to turn excess milk into other dairy products, with dairies producing other valuable products like butter, cream, cheese and yoghurt's. Milk aside, diary products are big business. A 25 pence litre of milk may end up as something that sells for 15 times as much, people pay good money for ‘health yogurt’ – which with the addition of bacteria, flavouring and a marketing campaign produce healthy profits for the companies that produce them.
Some 40 per cent of our yogurt is made in France and Belgium, in 2009 more than 40 per cent of all Cheddar sold in the UK was produced abroad. It’s not just yogurt and cheese; it’s a similar story with butter. Only one of the most popular supermarket brands [Country Life] is actually from UK milk. The bulk of our butter comes from Denmark and Ireland, and this is despite tha fact that farm gate prices for milk remain consistently higher in Europe than here in the UK.
We (in the UK) when compared with 10 years ago now import nearly half our butter from abroad, cheese imports are also up, some 60 percent over the last ten years. In the UK we are importing those products that have added-value and are export the low-value milk products which are then turned into butter, yogurt, etc and sold back to us. This is madness; this is what happens in the Third World, where countries export their raw commodities cheaply and then have little choice but to buy back the manufactured products that are made from their own raw materials.
The NFU has suggested, and they should know, that the UK is in the process of losing a critical mass of milk suppliers and that we are no longer in a position where we supply the UK's “core milk requirement” which is around some 13 billion litres per year. In the last year there has been a 15 percent drop in UK Milk prices. In the last 10 years the Supermarkets’ margins (that is the the amount of the price they take on milk) have doubled in ten years. Now with a trend for both the processor and retailer to be the same, we have a situation where they take over three quarters of the price of a pint. We have now reached the situation where in a land renowned for Dairy farming and where even though the price of our milk is cheap, we are now become a net importer of milk.
Ironically it was a development of railway communications during the industrial revolution that provided the means to deliver the farmers milk to our towns and cities and ironically as a knock on effect there was a spread of diary production. It is doubly ironic that the first supermarkets (Sainsbury’s in Covent Garden, London, in 1869) sold what was then called “railway milk” from churns. The milkman arrived next delivering direct to our doorsteps, his near demise followed some years later was a direct result of super market price-cutting which has now, more or less, effectively killed him off.
The UK Government as early as 1914 recognised that milk was important for nutrition in children, that it helped prevent rickets, and provided vitamins. And so the first government attempts to regulate milk’s supply and quality came about. Pasteurization was duly brought in to kill of certain bacteria. We now have low fat milk, slimmed milk, semi skimmed milk, etc – one thing to think about is that full fat milk is only 4 percent fat, low fat milk being 2 percent (or less) and that milk is approximately 95 percent water anyway.
During the good times, pre Mrs Thatcher, the banks fell over themselves throwing credit at framers to encourage them to (as the Government and the EU wanted) to ever expand their production. Once Mrs T (and the Conservatives) who was never interested in farming anyway, being far to enamored of dodgy money men in the City, allowed Milk quota’s (effective cuts) the bad times had begun for our Dairy farmers and oddly enough the banks stopped calling with offers of cheap credit.
What can best be described as industrial milk production is not without its problems – slurry production being one of them, which can be enormously toxic and environmentally damaging. Something else to consider is that modern cows to produce large amounts of cheap milk, a While a modern Frisian may produce as much 4 times as much milk as equivalent cows did 50 years it only has three milking years in which to do it.
The talk of a milk ombudsman is welcome, but it needs to be more than talk, there is a need for action, before our dairy farmers (and our farmers) are driven out of business entirely. What may follow if nothing is done may not be pretty, it may be semi industrial and serviced by cheap migrant Labour. Supermarkets have to take a share of the blame for aggressively pursuing ever greater shares of the profit.
Successive UK Governments (both Conservative and Labour) also failed to take any meaningful action – this either being down to a combination of nice financial inducements from large Supermarkets and / or a general indifference to the agricultural sector. We, as consumers also have to take a share of the blame because we allowed all of these things to happen, if we want quality milk and dairy products (that are produce from UK milk) then we will have to change the way we buy, if we do that then out farmers will get a better deal.
Historically the answer to low milk prices or a surplus was to turn excess milk into other dairy products, with dairies producing other valuable products like butter, cream, cheese and yoghurt's. Milk aside, diary products are big business. A 25 pence litre of milk may end up as something that sells for 15 times as much, people pay good money for ‘health yogurt’ – which with the addition of bacteria, flavouring and a marketing campaign produce healthy profits for the companies that produce them.
Some 40 per cent of our yogurt is made in France and Belgium, in 2009 more than 40 per cent of all Cheddar sold in the UK was produced abroad. It’s not just yogurt and cheese; it’s a similar story with butter. Only one of the most popular supermarket brands [Country Life] is actually from UK milk. The bulk of our butter comes from Denmark and Ireland, and this is despite tha fact that farm gate prices for milk remain consistently higher in Europe than here in the UK.
We (in the UK) when compared with 10 years ago now import nearly half our butter from abroad, cheese imports are also up, some 60 percent over the last ten years. In the UK we are importing those products that have added-value and are export the low-value milk products which are then turned into butter, yogurt, etc and sold back to us. This is madness; this is what happens in the Third World, where countries export their raw commodities cheaply and then have little choice but to buy back the manufactured products that are made from their own raw materials.
The NFU has suggested, and they should know, that the UK is in the process of losing a critical mass of milk suppliers and that we are no longer in a position where we supply the UK's “core milk requirement” which is around some 13 billion litres per year. In the last year there has been a 15 percent drop in UK Milk prices. In the last 10 years the Supermarkets’ margins (that is the the amount of the price they take on milk) have doubled in ten years. Now with a trend for both the processor and retailer to be the same, we have a situation where they take over three quarters of the price of a pint. We have now reached the situation where in a land renowned for Dairy farming and where even though the price of our milk is cheap, we are now become a net importer of milk.
Ironically it was a development of railway communications during the industrial revolution that provided the means to deliver the farmers milk to our towns and cities and ironically as a knock on effect there was a spread of diary production. It is doubly ironic that the first supermarkets (Sainsbury’s in Covent Garden, London, in 1869) sold what was then called “railway milk” from churns. The milkman arrived next delivering direct to our doorsteps, his near demise followed some years later was a direct result of super market price-cutting which has now, more or less, effectively killed him off.
The UK Government as early as 1914 recognised that milk was important for nutrition in children, that it helped prevent rickets, and provided vitamins. And so the first government attempts to regulate milk’s supply and quality came about. Pasteurization was duly brought in to kill of certain bacteria. We now have low fat milk, slimmed milk, semi skimmed milk, etc – one thing to think about is that full fat milk is only 4 percent fat, low fat milk being 2 percent (or less) and that milk is approximately 95 percent water anyway.
During the good times, pre Mrs Thatcher, the banks fell over themselves throwing credit at framers to encourage them to (as the Government and the EU wanted) to ever expand their production. Once Mrs T (and the Conservatives) who was never interested in farming anyway, being far to enamored of dodgy money men in the City, allowed Milk quota’s (effective cuts) the bad times had begun for our Dairy farmers and oddly enough the banks stopped calling with offers of cheap credit.
What can best be described as industrial milk production is not without its problems – slurry production being one of them, which can be enormously toxic and environmentally damaging. Something else to consider is that modern cows to produce large amounts of cheap milk, a While a modern Frisian may produce as much 4 times as much milk as equivalent cows did 50 years it only has three milking years in which to do it.
The talk of a milk ombudsman is welcome, but it needs to be more than talk, there is a need for action, before our dairy farmers (and our farmers) are driven out of business entirely. What may follow if nothing is done may not be pretty, it may be semi industrial and serviced by cheap migrant Labour. Supermarkets have to take a share of the blame for aggressively pursuing ever greater shares of the profit.
Successive UK Governments (both Conservative and Labour) also failed to take any meaningful action – this either being down to a combination of nice financial inducements from large Supermarkets and / or a general indifference to the agricultural sector. We, as consumers also have to take a share of the blame because we allowed all of these things to happen, if we want quality milk and dairy products (that are produce from UK milk) then we will have to change the way we buy, if we do that then out farmers will get a better deal.
Saturday, 16 January 2010
LOCAL FOOD, LOCAL FARMERS
With an election coming, particularly in a rural constituency, everyone chasing votes will appear like magic and claim to be the farmer’s friend. Our farming communities, despite this forthcoming warm are feeling increasingly isolated and marginalized, the contempt with which the farmers used to be treated by the once New Labour Government in Westminster and until relatively recently in Cardiff Bay at least until the arrival of Elin Jones, Agriculture Minister in the Plaid driven One Wales Government , used to mirror the neglect of the important agricultural sector, which makes a significant contribution to our rural economy.
It is worth remembering that not that long ago in the 1980's it was a Tory Secretary of State who literally sat by and quietly did nothing when many of our Dairy farmers got hammered into the ground by cuts in the milk quota. Never again must any Welsh Minister fail to stand up and be counted and to fail to argue their corner on behalf of Welsh farmers. Now at least withElin Jones (AM), the Plaid One Wales Government Minister for Rural Affairs we have a minster who is not afraid to actually meet with and to stand up for our farmers and their interests - this is a refreshing change from what has gone before.
Much more of an effort to create a level playing field for our farmers and a real effort from National and Local government to secure 80% of publically procured food locally by 2015 – this could provide the first practical step towards helping Welsh farmers and other producers make the most of the new opportunities that will arise from higher public purchasing of local products.
Let’s not kid ourselves, any economic failure across the farming sector will have a massive knock on effects for dependent small businesses and suppliers across the whole rural economy, in the small towns and across the Welsh countryside itself; which is as a living landscape is a result of generations of ongoing hard work by the farming community.
The Plaid driven one Wales Government unlike previous governments in Westminster and Cardiff Bay no longer treats the agricultural sector with indifference. Most people agree that much more effort has to be made to market first class Welsh produce within Wales, within the UK and in Europe and beyond.
Now, our farmers, despite some mutterings to the contrary, are not just in the businesses of merely waiting for an annual brown envelope and cheque from Brussels but for a real opportunity to make a decent living within the agricultural sector - to do this they need a fair deal. We need to take practical steps to give Welsh farmers a fighting chance of making a real living; securing 80% of publicly procured food locally by 2015 is a realistic and practical aim.
This is something that could provide the first practical step towards helping Welsh farmers and other producers make the most of the new opportunities that will arise from higher public purchasing of local products and is something that will benefit local farmers, local businesses and the local economy.
It is worth remembering that not that long ago in the 1980's it was a Tory Secretary of State who literally sat by and quietly did nothing when many of our Dairy farmers got hammered into the ground by cuts in the milk quota. Never again must any Welsh Minister fail to stand up and be counted and to fail to argue their corner on behalf of Welsh farmers. Now at least withElin Jones (AM), the Plaid One Wales Government Minister for Rural Affairs we have a minster who is not afraid to actually meet with and to stand up for our farmers and their interests - this is a refreshing change from what has gone before.
Much more of an effort to create a level playing field for our farmers and a real effort from National and Local government to secure 80% of publically procured food locally by 2015 – this could provide the first practical step towards helping Welsh farmers and other producers make the most of the new opportunities that will arise from higher public purchasing of local products.
Let’s not kid ourselves, any economic failure across the farming sector will have a massive knock on effects for dependent small businesses and suppliers across the whole rural economy, in the small towns and across the Welsh countryside itself; which is as a living landscape is a result of generations of ongoing hard work by the farming community.
The Plaid driven one Wales Government unlike previous governments in Westminster and Cardiff Bay no longer treats the agricultural sector with indifference. Most people agree that much more effort has to be made to market first class Welsh produce within Wales, within the UK and in Europe and beyond.
Now, our farmers, despite some mutterings to the contrary, are not just in the businesses of merely waiting for an annual brown envelope and cheque from Brussels but for a real opportunity to make a decent living within the agricultural sector - to do this they need a fair deal. We need to take practical steps to give Welsh farmers a fighting chance of making a real living; securing 80% of publicly procured food locally by 2015 is a realistic and practical aim.
This is something that could provide the first practical step towards helping Welsh farmers and other producers make the most of the new opportunities that will arise from higher public purchasing of local products and is something that will benefit local farmers, local businesses and the local economy.
Thursday, 3 December 2009
THINK MILK
The news that some 82.5 per cent of Welsh farmers will receive Single Payments totalling more than £200million from Tuesday, 1st December, which is the first day that the European Commission allows payments to be made, is welcome good news and proof that Elin Jones AM, the hard working Minister for Rural Affairs in the Plaid driven One Wales Government is working hard for our farmers.
In times of financial difficulty, the fact that so many farmers can expect to receive their Single Payment in the first month of the seven-month payment period will help. The success of Rural Payments Wales matches last year’s achievement, in addition to processing 258 Advance payments worth about £5million in mid October to farmers affected by the demise of Dairy Farmers of Britain.
Now don't get me wrong, these are concrete steps to help our farmers, but, more needs to be done, with that in mind I welcome the National Assembly's rural development sub-committee’s call for an ombudsman to help protect and develop the dairy farming industry in Wales and support the call for more to be done to encourage demand for quality Welsh dairy products as has happened already with Welsh Beef and Welsh Lamb.
Sadly the news that the number of dairy farmers in Wales has dropped by a third in five years and the warnings that more needs to be done to save the industry along with the fact that Farmers are also not getting a fair price for the milk they produce, when compared to the price charged by retailers to consumers, will not come as a surprise to most people.
More needs to be done to give our dairy farmers a fair deal and one concrete step could be for our public bodies to increase the proportion of dairy products they procured locally in order to help safeguard milk producers and to give them a fair price for their milk.
In times of financial difficulty, the fact that so many farmers can expect to receive their Single Payment in the first month of the seven-month payment period will help. The success of Rural Payments Wales matches last year’s achievement, in addition to processing 258 Advance payments worth about £5million in mid October to farmers affected by the demise of Dairy Farmers of Britain.
Now don't get me wrong, these are concrete steps to help our farmers, but, more needs to be done, with that in mind I welcome the National Assembly's rural development sub-committee’s call for an ombudsman to help protect and develop the dairy farming industry in Wales and support the call for more to be done to encourage demand for quality Welsh dairy products as has happened already with Welsh Beef and Welsh Lamb.
Sadly the news that the number of dairy farmers in Wales has dropped by a third in five years and the warnings that more needs to be done to save the industry along with the fact that Farmers are also not getting a fair price for the milk they produce, when compared to the price charged by retailers to consumers, will not come as a surprise to most people.
More needs to be done to give our dairy farmers a fair deal and one concrete step could be for our public bodies to increase the proportion of dairy products they procured locally in order to help safeguard milk producers and to give them a fair price for their milk.
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