DEFRA’s maths is once again called into question
Posted on: 02/12/19
DEFRA are claiming the average farm-gate milk price for October was an eye watering 29.35ppl. In addition they claim the average price paid in September was 29.47ppl which is suspect and certainly warrants further investigation.
For October the standard liquid litre price for non aligned ranged from 24ppl to 29.02ppl (Arla) and on a standard manufacturing litre the range was 26.91ppl to 30.19ppl (Arla). Note DEFRA do not include any retrospective bonus/13th payments in the 29.35ppl figure. Its milk price reporting claims to cover 94% of processors in England & Wales.
In addition the DEFRA 29.35ppl is the average price paid to producers not a standard litre price but it simply looks horribly wrong.
DEFRA’s bean counters unfortunately have a track record of poor number crunching. In April 2016 this bulletin reported it’s irresponsible and misleading calculation with DEFRA claiming the February 2016 milk price had jumped by 2.48ppl in a month from 23.09ppl to 25.57ppl. DEFRA dug their heels in and refused to backdown but subsequently secretly amended the 25.57ppl figure dropping it down to 23.01ppl without admitting they were wrong!
Ian has emailed his story to the person responsible in DEFRA julie.rumsey@defra.gov.uk