Desperate dairy sector needs government support

The government should promote British dairy products more and encourage a fairer price for farmers for British provenance, Raymond told FoodManufacture.co.uk in this exclusive video filmed at the IFE conference earlier this week (March 23).

“It’s fairly desperate at the moment; 20% of dairy farmers are receiving a price in excess of what it’s costing to produce but the other 80% are selling milk way below the cost of production.​

‘Not good at supporting’​

“It would be so important if government would drive Britishness. We know the public sector has not been that good at supporting home grown product. My plea – as well as putting more British product on shelves – is to get the public sector to back the British dairy industry.” ​

Watch this video to find out what other problems the sector is facing and why, despite these, Raymond is still positive about the outlook for farming.

Raymond said the recent all-time high for British dairy exports was good news for the sector.

He claimed that an increase in world production and lack of crises had created advantageous prices for consumers.

Raymond also said that the Groceries Code Adjudicator had made the food and drink industry more professional.​

Meanwhile, read our Big Interview​ with Raymond here.