Global dairy giant Arla is set to cut prices from January 1st - a move which is set to affect thousands of dairy farmers across the UK. The company announced the decision to cut the on-account price by two and half euros per kilogram in Europe last Tuesday. This translates into a cut of around 2.03 ppl, bringing the price of a standard litre to around 24.81 ppl.
Arla, which has a turnover of around £2bn and a milk pool of 3.2bn litres, is known for brands such as Anchor, Lurpak and Cravendale. It has operations throughout Europe, North America and Asia and employs around 4,000 people in the UK.
The NFU's (National Farmers Union) president, Meurig Raymond, said: "I feel desperate for those 3,000 dairy farmers supplying Arla who’ve been delivered the worst possible Christmas present. It couldn’t have come at a worse time and this latest reduction will continue to place huge pressure on cash flows for these farmers in the months ahead. It is vital that we don’t see this trend continue through other processors’ February price announcements."
The NFU went onto say that dairy farmers would continue with business as usual and stressed the importance of buying British to help support the nation's farmers.