Morrisons Creates New Milk Brand to Support Dairy Farmers

After recent tensions regarding the price per litre of milk, Morrisons are launching a new brand, named “Morrisons Milk for Farmers”. The new brand aims to give customers a way to directly support dairy farmers. Morrisons are aiming to get it out on shelves this Autumn and It will sit alongside Morrisons standard-priced own brand milk in the dairy aisle.

Morrisons’ Corporate Services Director Martyn Jones said: “We recognise that the current market for liquid milk is impacting on hardworking dairy farmers and their families. We want to reassure the industry that the retail price we charge for Morrisons milk reflects the highly competitive retail market. It is not linked to the price we pay our milk suppliers.

“We want to offer practical help by launching a range of 4-pint milk at a retail premium of 10p per litre, all of which will be passed back directly to dairy farmers. We will stock this product in all our stores, offering our customers the choice to support dairy farmers directly.”

Other retailers have similar deals, but dairy organisation AHDB Dairy said 10p would make “a considerable difference”.

What the new milk brand undoubtedly does is give shoppers the opportunity to clearly show their support – or lack of it – for British farmers.

Morrisons is also giving more details of how it pays for milk from its majority supplier Arla, which buys milk from farmers.

Martyn Jones said: “We also want to clarify that our current three year contract with Arla, who supply the majority of our milk, uses a cost model that automatically adjusts the price that we pay for milk, based on a combination of the independently set farmgate price and other commodities such as diesel and plastics that influence the cost of milk.

“We can confirm that we have asked our milk suppliers not to pass on further decreases in the current farmgate price to us, but to share any benefit with the dairy farmer instead.”

Following Morrisons’ announcement of a ‘Milk for Farmers initiative’, here is a statement from the NFU:

NFU President Meurig Raymond said: “This is a welcome first step. We need Morrisons to make sure there is plenty of resource available to promote this product. It must also be displayed prominently in-store. We have also had discussions with Morrisons about how it can introduce further initiatives to support dairy, including cheese, butter and yogurt. We will continue to urge Morrisons and all retailers to ensure that farmers from all sectors who supply their food get a fair price.”