Farron welcomes dairy profit improvement but calls for more to be done

South Lakes MP Tim Farron welcomes dairy industry progress from deficit to profit but urges that the industry still needs ongoing support.

Recent figures from Dodd & co. have revealed that the average dairy farm in Northern England and South West Scotland is making a profit of 0.99ppl. The surplus is up 1.28 ppl from 2010, which saw most farms running at a deficit, an improvement largely due to an increase in milk prices.

Commenting, Tim said "I'm really pleased that the dairy industry has done better this year, but I cannot stress enough that we cannot rest on this minor success. We need to ensure that our farmers get a fair price for their milk. Milk price has been the defining factor in this year's success.

Good progress in Government is being made towards this through the Grocery Codes Adjudicator Bill. Perhaps the threat of this has made the supermarkets pay a fairer price in some circumstances? But this is not enough. We need to do more to support our dairy industry, and agricultural industries as a whole. Supermarket monopolies cannot be run at the expense of our farmers and our taxpayers. The small profit being made by the average farm is not sufficient to allow sufficient business development or reinvestment"