Neil Parish appears to have swallowed the line of the NFU and dairy processors, writes Derek Mead So Neil Parish, once a Somerset farmer and now Conservative MP for Tiverton, has put his finger on the cause of the dairy crisis: theres too much milk sloshing about. And rather than offer the support of the parliamentary dairy committee he chairs in trying to find a solution for British producers – who are hardly affected by global markets – he has said we might as well dig in. I think Neil must have had an operation to loosen the joints in his neck because hes rapidly gaining a reputation as the human weathervane, swinging round to come up with whichever version of events suits the way the winds blowing. Hes been painted as someone who is going to stand up for the dairy sector but the message he delivered to the Conservative Rural Affairs Group three weeks ago seemed to suggest that he was already throwing the towel in. Perhaps Neil has been too heavily influenced by what the processors have been telling him, because the truth is that global market prices shouldnt be an issue at all when it comes to fixing UK milk prices and are just being used as an excuse to cut the processors and retailers bills and boost their profits. Even the highly respected farm accountants Andersons, I see, are now speaking openly of profiteering in the supermarket sector. Has anyone heard anything so strongly voiced by the NFU? I certainly havent. We are, after all, only 83 per cent self-sufficient in milk in this country, which makes us a buyer rather than a seller. When you deduct from our total output the seven billion litres that goes into the liquid trade and the rest that goes into cheese, there is only a very small amount of over-production, usually taken up by turning it into skimmed milk powder. That is a global commodity but the volumes we are talking about cannot possibly have any significant impact on the wider dairy market. What concerns me is what is going to happen when quotas come off later this year, something which might have appeared a very good idea when it was suggested but which is currently the last thing we need. Sadly, with EU policies taking months, if not years, to be enacted, any chance of intervention by Brussels to head off what could be the most appalling financial bloodbath come the spring is unlikely. The only thing that is going to give British dairy farmers long-term security and an ongoing decent return from sustainable prices is the creation of a single selling organisation. Clearly, however, neither the processors nor the retailers want that, and if someone told me that they were already exerting their influence to prevent such a thing ever happening I should not be in the least bit surprised. The fact remains that farmers do have the collective muscle to rebel against the way they are being treated, against having their profit margins and living standards dictated by supermarkets. But while the NFU remains the single largest organisation representing farmers, and while that organisation remains dedicated to giving the government an easy ride and not causing any waves, the chances of mass action taking place are as remote as the prospect of the Lib Dems being put in charge of the country in May.
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 15:54:14 +0000
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