UK dairy farmers received the lowest milk prices in Europe last year, confirms a report compiled by the Dutch Dairy Commodity Board and European Dairy Farmers, an organisation that represents producer interests.
As milk collection becomes less restricted by national boundaries, the differences in prices paid by dairy processors on Europe’s mainland are becoming less pronounced. But the UK’s isolated geography protects manufacturers to some extent from international competition.
The International comparison of producer prices for milk 1999 was commissioned by the dairy committee of the Dutch farmers’ union LTO Nederland in an effort to improve market transparency.
The report does not offer a comparison of average prices paid by dairies, but instead gives a price that each company would have paid for a certain standard quality and quantity of milk according to individual payment systems. Statistics are therefore more accurate and of greater use than those based on mean values. Figures are determined using a calculation model based on analysis of milk payment receipts and external data such as exchange rates.