Meadow Foods Bombshell notice to find another Milk Buyer

Last week Meadow sent a letter to a number of its producers giving them 12 months notice that they no longer require their milk. Meadow declined to confirm how many notices have been issued but judging by the people who have contacted Ian and alternative milk purchasers it could easily number 50 plus affected farmers.

Meadow informed Ian the notices are linked to quantity of milk supplied, farm assurance, milk quality including claiming they have weeded out the “farms we couldn’t take a customer onto”. This does not run true with farmers Ian has spoken to or indeed the notice letters which make no reference to milk quality or any farm assurance concerns or failures. In addition Meadow informed Ian some of the others under notice were small pickups of under 750 litres/day.

The sting in the tail is Meadows statement that from April 1^st 2020 for their final 3 months notice period those farmers under notice will be paid at a B litre milk price. This must surely be challenged by those involved because if Meadows contractual notice period is 12 months how can they pay a B price for the final 3 months?

Ian would like to hear, on or off record, from affected Meadow producers via email but it looks like a smoke screen with Meadow having lost a serious amount of contracted volume somewhere and needing to cut volume and cost quickly and if possible by squeezing loyal producers to quit early.