Müller mitigates Brexit threat by investing in dairy farmers
UK manufacturer of dairy products Müller has unveiled a series of measures to help farmers build dairy businesses for the future.
In the past, Müller has invested £100m (€111.8m) in its UK network of dairies in order to build an additional £700m worth of sales by 2020.
Now the business wants to increase confidence and resilience amongst its dairy farmer suppliers in response to the uncertainty surrounding future support for farmers in a post-Brexit era.
Rob Hutchison, Müller agriculture director, says, “There is a lot of uncertainty out there but we are optimistic. Britain remains one of the best places in the world to produce milk and Müller is investing heavily to ensure that consumers will be able to buy more and more dairy products made in Britain with milk from British farmers.
“We want to work with farmers to realise our shared ambitions as the basis of a progressive industry with the security and confidence to invest. The steps we are outlining today are early measures which signal our intent.”
Müller has confirmed multiple initiatives targeted at its Direct Farmers. Firstly, a 1.31ppl increase in its farm gate milk price with effect from 1 September 2017, taking its standard litre price to 29.00ppl. Secondly, the introduction of a new Müller Direct Futures Contract option, giving dairy farmers the opportunity to agree a monthly price for up to 25% of their milk volume, for 12 months ahead.
Thirdly, the introduction of Müller Farm Insight, a new service for dairy farmers offering valuable data, welfare tools and benchmarking, to help their businesses. And finally, the launch of Müller Direct, which comprises the 700 of the company’s 1,800 farmer suppliers who aren’t currently part of groups aligned to major supermarket customers.
