Müller to reduce milk purchases from Scotland

Müller Milk & Ingredients has announced that it will cut its milk purchases from Scotland farmers to address the 25% surge in farm milk production since 2014.

The milk processor said that increase in production is not supported by growth in demand in Scotland for fresh milk products.

However, the company will provide one full year notice to dairy farm suppliers in the North East of Scotland before reducing the purchases.

Müller Milk & Ingredients milk supply director Rob Hutchison said: “We fully appreciate that these measures will be extremely unwelcome and destabilising for our farmer suppliers particularly in the North East of Scotland but the current situation is unviable and we must act.

“We completed the largest single investment in fresh milk processing in Scotland in more than a decade at our dairy in Bellshill last year and we will continue to do what we can to stimulate new demand for fresh milk.”

“But with fresh milk already in 96% of the nation’s fridges and overall consumer demand for the product in marginal decline, the reality is that it is extremely unlikely that this sector will soak up the heightened levels of milk production from farms which we have seen.”

Other measures that the company intend to implement include introduction of a tiered transport charge for dairy farmer suppliers in Scotland from February 2020.

The charge will apply to the fastest expanding dairy farmers, who accept a uniformly higher charge than those who have grown production more modestly.

Hutchison added: “Our farm services team will now work closely with affected dairy farmers and we will do everything in our power to help them adjust to the changes which we must now make.”

Since 2014, Müller’s 230 Scottish dairy farmer suppliers increased milk production by 33 litres of additional milk per annum for every person in Scotland.

The surplus milk was moved to the English markets by Müller, resulting in more than 6,000 tanker movements annually.