First Milk announces lift for milk prices

First Milk in the UK has confirmed that it will increase its A prices for milk by up to 1.25ppl (€0.014) , as well as lifting its B price by 5ppl (€0.058).

In a letter to his members, chairman Clive Sharpe, says, “Basket mechanisms for our cheese pools have allowed us to lift prices by 1.25ppl across August and September (0.75ppl for August + 0.5ppl for September) and we believe it is likely that the September increase could rise further.

“Having moved our B price up 2ppl for July, we were keen to raise this further to reflect the strength of improving market returns. We are therefore increasing our B price by a further 5ppl to 20ppl from 1 August and hope that this will allow members the opportunity to benefit from producing more marginal litres.”

Mike Gallacher, chief executive at First Milk, adds, “The progress made over the last year at First Milk allows us to continue to move our prices as the market improves. The steep progress on the B price indicates the positive direction of travel we see in the market. Clearly our members need to see further improvement in prices and we will be passing improvements on as rapidly as possible.”

“In addition to market moves, we have committed to pass back money from progress made internally in First Milk; from cutting costs; improving our cheese quality and exiting our loss making subsidiaries. As a direct result, we have returned 0.75ppl as a business performance supplement over the last two months and this figure will continue to grow over the year ahead.”