Alarm bells ringing: British farmers warn out-of-control milk price rise may lead to dairy and cheese crisis
Brits will soon face a cheese shortage as spiralling production costs hit producers, farmers are warning this weekend.
A farming expert said many supermarkets are already experiencing dwindling supplies – and warned that things are going to get a lot worse.
Dairy Farmer Steve Evans from Pembrokeshire told GB News cheese is already in short supply across the country.
Evans said: “The supermarkets are a little bit twitchy, and are little bit scared about what’s going on because all of a sudden, supply’s tight. Milk goes into cheese, and the cheese stores and right now there is hardly any hard cheese in storage.”
“The challenges of dairy farming amid spiralling costs has already seen some farmers throw in the towel.”
Dairy farmer Steve Evans
“People are sort of moving away or reducing the amount of fertiliser – we’re facing a winter, this winter coming, where feed costs are going to be through the roof. What are people going to do?
“They’re going to feed less, so there’s going to be less milk about to go into your doorstep delivery to your supermarket deliveries, into the cheese factories or into the value added markets.
Evans added: “We’ve tried our best to sort of forewarn of what’s happening, what’s coming, but we can only do so much and we’re not scaremongering.
“We’re just saying how it is, this is happening and it’s real.”
50 per cent hike
His warning comes as one of the country’s leading farming experts told how a 50 per cent hike in the price of a pint of milk is likely to be permanent.
Paul Tompkins, vice chair of the National Union of Farmers dairy board, warned price increases were being driven by the spiralling price of feed, fuel and fertiliser and that higher shop prices for dairy products are likely to stay for the foreseeable future.
Tompkins, said that a 50 per cent increase in the price of milk to be imposed by the major supermarkets from next month is likely to stay for the long term.
He told GB News: “It takes me two and a half years to get a calf from being born on our farm to be actually producing milk and that incurs a lot of costs over those two years.
“Even if things were to return to normal, even if we were to reduce our costs now and be paid a fair price for milk, the implications of what we’re going through now is actually going to be for the medium to longer term.
“I think this is a concern for all of those that are interested in eating some decent dairy food.”
Paul Tompkins
He added: ”Margins are tight throughout the entire supply chain. I know that I’m being heaped with extra costs as a result of a whole host of factors and those are what I’m really concerned about.
“There is undoubtedly a need for conversation about fairness in the supply chain, and how the money moves from right from the shop shelf down to my farm gate,” Tompkins concluded.