Dairy Farmer Articles

I have been writing this article alongside my free dairy newsletter for the past 29 years, and I have never experienced the volatility together with unforeseen, abrupt, and frightening changes that we have witnessed so far in April. It made me tentative about what to write, knowing it could all change before it was published! The problem was simple: dairy processors could not convert or divert cancelled foodservice orders into the retail sector.

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Following on from the collapse of Tomlinson Dairies few involved will be surprised to learn that Sainsbury's believe they don't owe their supplying farmers anything. Surprisingly, prior to it taking the hard-line stance that farmers could whistle for their lost milk money, much to the surprise of many one of the Sainsburys Dairy Development Group farmer committee members suggested that unaffected SDDG farmers should pay towards the losses sustained by their Tomlinsons colleagues.

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If there is one episode in recent years that illustrates the merciless attitude of some retailers towards suppliers it’s the Sainsburys-Tomlinsons disgrace.  So many thanks to the anonymous reader who kindly sent me notes from the December meeting involving Tomlinson’s SDDG suppliers. At the meeting Melanie Cherchian, Sainsburys’ Head of Dairy, defended the retailer’s decision to move to “second tier processors” in 2016, on the grounds that “competition would give us leverage, which would be good for everybody”.

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Back in 2010 the Irish Government set a target to increase its milk output by 2020 by a whopping 50% from 4.9 to 7.5 billion litres. The plan was called The Food Harvest 2020. Now it really is 2020, and the Irish have smashed that target, and increased volumes to 8 billion litres (+63%) in 2019, and it is still growing now. The 2020 figure is likely to be near to 70%.

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There’s no doubt Red Tractor (RT) upped its game in 2019, but not before time. It claims it now has teeth and that serious non conformers are immediately suspended. However, it appears a number of dairy farmers continue to take the view that they wait for the audit to alert them to any failures, following which they need to correct them, obtain a pass, and then return to business as usual.

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