The Farmers Mart Autumn 2017 - Issue 52 | Page 69

Dairy

Müller reveals measures to help UK dairy farmers

‘ Britain best place to produce milk ’
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DAIRY GIANT MÜLLER HAS unveiled a series of measures to help farmers build their dairy businesses for the future , amid growing uncertainty .
It has confirmed £ 100m of investment in its UK network of dairies so that it can build an additional £ 700m worth of sales of dairy products made with milk from British farmers , by 2020 .
Müller has said it wants to increase ‘ confidence and resilience ’ amongst its dairy farmer suppliers against a backdrop of ‘ volatile and
unpredictable ’ global dairy markets .
It says there is uncertainty surrounding future support for farmers following the UK ’ s departure from the EU .
Müller has thus confirmed a 1.31ppl increase in its farm gate milk price with effect from 1st September 2017 , taking its standard litre price to 29.00ppl .
It has also introduced 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 .
Müller Farm Insight , a new service for dairy farmers offering data , welfare tools and benchmarking , to help their businesses , has also been opened .
Finally , Muller has launched Müller Direct . This comprises the 700 of the company ’ s 1,800 farmer suppliers who aren ’ t currently part of groups aligned to major supermarket customers . Müller Direct afarmers are the focus for all of the above initiatives .
Müller Agriculture Director Rob Hutchison said there is a lot of uncertainty out
there , but the company is optimistic .
He said : “ 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 .”
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Global dairy prices projected to increase from 2016 low over coming decade

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GLOBAL DAIRY PRICES ARE projected to increase from the 2016 low over the coming decade , according to the latest global outlook report .
Nonetheless , once inflation is taken into account , it is not thought that prices in real terms will return to the peak levels of 2013 .
World milk production expected to increase 21 % between 2016 and 2026 , reaching 977Mt , according to AHDB Dairy . The majority of this increase ( 77 %) is projected to come from the developing nations , particularly India and Pakistan , as herd size and productivity increases .
However , most of this is expected to be consumed domestically as fresh dairy products , with consumption of these products growing at 1.8 % per annum in developing regions over the decade .
Global demand for processed dairy products is also expected to increase 1.7 % per annum overall , supporting commodity prices .
The EU in particular is expected to benefit , holding 28 % of the market by
2026 , 4 percentage points more than in 2016 .
This follows from declining domestic demand for fresh dairy products , while milk production is still projected to grow 0.8 % per annum .
Increased exports will particularly be supported by cheese shipments . China and Egypt expected to double their cheese import requirements over the decade , while the EU will also be able to send more the Canada under the CETA agreement , and Russia after the import ban is lifted .
www . farmers-mart . co . uk Autumn 2017 69