Agriculture: Dairy Industry

Lord Livsey of Talgarth Excerpts

Monday 26th July 2010 Lords Chamber

[Lord De Mauley]

My Lords, I am not entirely sure what the question was, but we think that competitiveness is extremely important in this market.

[Lord Livsey of Talgarth]

My Lords, when the supermarket ombudsman is in his place, will the Minister take action to make it illegal for retail milk to be sold for less than the cost of production? It is the reason why 14,000 dairy farmers have left the industry since 1997 and why we have only 11,000 left. The ombudsman should use his powers to address that problem immediately.

[Lord De Mauley]

I acknowledge my noble friend’s point, but it will be up to the ombudsman to make these sorts of decisions. Industry tells us that there are grounds for cautious optimism in the dairy industry. The continuing decline in production has put pressure on buyers to pay more remunerative prices. Secondly, most major retailers now have dedicated groups of farmers supplying them with milk in return for premium prices.