Arla Foods has announced it will cut its conventional milk price for January 2019 by 1.5c/L.
When applied to the UK manufacturing litre, alongside the positive impact of the quarterly currency smoothing mechanism of 0.02p, this equates to 1.33p/L.
It takes the manufacturing price per litre down to 30.24p from January 1, 2019, for Arla’s farmer owners.
Arla Foods board director, and farmer, Johnnie Russell, said: “As anticipated, the recent commodity price declines have lowered returns in the market, particularly in fat based products, and, with global milk volumes remaining up on last year, this has resulted in reduced market prices overall.
“While we are not immune from the impact of global market pressures, it is down to our strength as a farmer-owned cooperative and the growth of our brands that overall this year we have delivered the industry’s best-averaged milk price.”
Working towards long-term sustainability
Graham Wilkinson, head of agriculture at Arla added: “Being farmer-owned enables us to work together across the whole supply chain from farm to fork to drive long-term sustainable benefits for all our farmer-owners.
“Through stepping up our collaboration with customers we have played an active part in developing industry-leading, award-winning farmer-led initiatives.
“It is imperative that we continue to work together to create and develop opportunities for sustainable growth.
“It is our mission to deliver the best possible milk price for our farmer owners while creating opportunities for growth.
To enable us to achieve this it is strategic investments such as the recently announced acquisition in the strategic Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region which are also significant for our owners.
“It is growth opportunities like this that are enabled by being part of a cooperative and give access to new product categories and new growth markets.”
Dale Farm
It comes just days after Northern Ireland’s largest milk processor Dale Farm announced it was knocking another penny off its monthly milk price.
It means the firm will pay its 1,300 suppliers 26.7p/L for November production. The month before, the co-op cut half a penny off its October price after several months of holding steady at the top of the region’s league board.
