An “unprecedented” oversupply of milk is driving prices down for dairy farmers in the West, making “life very difficult”.
Major dairy buyers like Arla and Muller have now cut the amount they pay farmers to around 35p per litre. The average price this time last year was 46p.
Chair of Somerset’s NFU Mark Humphreys, a dairy farmer himself, said: “We had a very severe draught, it’s made life very difficult for us. We’re now going into a situation where a lot of exports are coming to this country, competing with our milk price. It’s well below our cost of production.”
A spokesperson for Arla has said the milk production volume has increased so there is “significantly more milk around the world”.