‘First Milk not in danger of collapse’ -- chairman
THE Welsh Government’s Deputy
Minister for Farming and Food,
Rebecca Evans, met First Milk
chairman, Sir Jim Paice to discuss
delays to payments to some Welsh
milk producers.
Earlier in the day he told around
200 of the co-operative’s producer
members until January 26, with all
future payments also deferred by two
weeks.
members in South Wales that First
First Milk has also decided to reverse
Milk was not in danger of collapse.
the 1.1 pence per litre of the planned
Last week, the co-op announced it
February milk price reductions for
would be deferring payments to their the manufacturing and liquid pools,
increase members’ capital investment
and increase members’ capital
investment target from 5p to 7p per
litre.
Following the meeting at First Milk’s
Haverfordwest Creamery, Mrs Evans
said: “I have spoken to farmers who
tell me how concerned they are about
what the deferred payments mean
for the cash flow of their farming
businesses.
“I sought an urgent meeting with First
Milk to better understand how the
co-operative had found itself in this
position, and to satisfy myself that the
suite of actions taken by First Milk
will be enough to put them on a sound
footing.
“First Milk says that the actions it has
taken have helped to raise enough
capital to stem its own cash flow
problems and put the business on a
sound financial footing once again.
“Sir Jim also assured me he had
spoken with the banks in light of their
decision and had found them to be
sympathetic to the farmers’ situation.”
There are 400 Welsh dairy producers
in the co-operative and the vast
majority of milk produced in Wales
goes to the Haverfordwest Creamery
to produce cheese and other milk
products.
In December, the Deputy Minister
announced a review of the dairy
sector in Wales, which is being led by
Andy Richardson.
It aims to set out a long-term strategic
direction for the dairy industry, taking
views from all in the Welsh supply
chain and is due to report in the
coming weeks.