Dairy Crest is announcing that it is adjusting the Davidstow milk price. As a consequence of the challenging market conditions, a reduction of 1.6ppl will be applied from 1 March 2016. This has been agreed with Dairy Crest Direct (DCD) and means the milk price for Davidstow will be 22.72ppl from 1 March.
Ruth Askew, Head of Procurement at Dairy Crest, commented, “I fully appreciate this reduction will be disappointing news. Dairy Crest has worked hard over the course of this milk year to try to deliver price stability for our Davidstow farmers. We recently introduced a price floor through to the end of February. This helped to provide some certainty to farmers over the winter months.
“However, dairy markets are under extreme pressure and milk supply remains high. The performance of our cheese brands has enabled us consistently to pay a leading milk price for our Davidstow milk. However, we are not immune from market forces and must take responsible action to make sure our products are competitive.
“Going forwards our focus will be on growth, through both our branded cheese and spreads operations, as well as new revenue streams from manufacturing demineralised whey powder and galacto-oligosaccharide (GOS). These are both products for the fast-growing global infant formula market.
“On milk procurement, we will continue to work closely with DCD on innovative ways of working that encourage our farmers to plan for the future.”
