UK – Organic food and farming group the Soil Association said on Tuesday that prices for organic dairy products should remain high.

Speaking at a conference, Soil Association director Patrick Holden said: “Organic milk is a high quality product – that should be reflected in the price paid and relayed through information available to consumers at the point of sale.” The Organic Milk Suppliers Co-operative (OMSCo) claims that sales of organic milk grew 16% in 2001.

Speaking at the conference, OMSCo marketing director David Whiting said: “This is not the time to drop the price [for organic milk] as some suggest. There is no evidence that this would boost sales”. Last week, UK supermarket chain Tesco announced that it plans to drop the price of organic milk by as much as 11p (0.17 euro) per litre.

At the conference, the Soil Association called for more co-operation between producers, processors and the retail chain. The group also said that organic milk should be made available in schools and hospitals and that a campaign to raise consumers’ awareness of the benefits of organic products was needed.