Ash Amirahmadi, Arla’s head of milk procurement said: “I am pleased to confirm that Arla is in a position to maintain a standard litre price of 27 pence for non-aligned members of Arla Foods Milk Partnership. We have agreed a transparent reconciliation method with our customers and our supplying farmers to demonstrate that all of the money recovered from the marketplace has been paid out in full.”
It costs farmers around 30p per litre to produce milk and so most of the main processors are still paying well below the cost of production.
Already the number of dairy farmers in the UK has gone down from 34,570 in 1996 to 14,500 today.
Supermarkets, who buy most of the milk and make most of the profit, have also been under pressure to pay more so that the processors can pass the money on.
Already Sainsbury's, Tesco, Waitrose and M&S pay a premium.
Morrisons and Lidl have agreed to pay more per litre to support farmers. The Co-operative also agreed to pay more following public pressure.
Jamie Oliver, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and the Women's Institute all backed the protests and urged consumers to boycott supermarkets that do not pay a fair price.
Farmers for Action, who are leading the protests, said blockades will continue aganist supermarkets and Muller Wiseman.
"All energy will now be concentrated on the other companies and these protests continue," read a statement.
Peter Kendall, President of the Farmers Union, also said the campaign will continue.
"We are calling for the retailers Iceland and Farmfoods to ensure they start to pay a price to their milk suppliers that covers the cost of production," he said. "And all eyes are on the milk processor Wiseman / Muller to rescind its planned milk price cut before August 1. The pressure on this company’s brands must be felt after today’s announcements by its rivals."
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