Dairy Farmers Say Supermarket Fat Cats Getting The Cream
Farmers are being short-changed over milk and supermarket fat cats are lapping up the profits, the Farmers' Union of Wales said today.
"Whilst Tesco are demanding farmers reveal their accounts to an independent assessor or suffer a 0.5p per litre penalty, there is little or no such transparency further down the chain," said FUW's vice president Brian Walters at the Welsh Dairy Show in Carmarthen.
"The closest we have to transparency is data just published by DairyCo on the 2007 dairy supply chain margins," said Mr Walters.
"These figures suggest that last year processors failed to pass prise rises on to farmers. However, this does not constitute anything like the transparency being demanded of farmers by Tesco."
The report - "Dairy Supply Chain Margins 2007" - concludes that the delay between increases in retail prices and farmgate price rises meant many farmers were short-changed by tens of thousands of pounds at a time of rapidly rising production costs.
"Whilst Tesco are demanding farmers reveal their accounts to an independent assessor or suffer a 0.5p per litre penalty, there is little or no such transparency further down the chain," said FUW's vice president Brian Walters at the Welsh Dairy Show in Carmarthen.
"The closest we have to transparency is data just published by DairyCo on the 2007 dairy supply chain margins," said Mr Walters.
"These figures suggest that last year processors failed to pass prise rises on to farmers. However, this does not constitute anything like the transparency being demanded of farmers by Tesco."
The report - "Dairy Supply Chain Margins 2007" - concludes that the delay between increases in retail prices and farmgate price rises meant many farmers were short-changed by tens of thousands of pounds at a time of rapidly rising production costs.