Also, at the request of its farmer board, Müller will start the process of aligning the milk price paid for its two liquid contracts, Müller Milk Group (ex- Müller Wiseman Dairies producers) and Direct Milk (ex-Dairy Crest producers).
Müller says the harmonization will be phased in to ensure all non-aligned dairy farmers supplying the business can benefit from the same standard liquid price.
A corner turned?
Lyndsay Chapman, Müller’s agriculture director, said she was hopeful that the dairy commodities market has turned a corner, leading to sustained recovery.
She said that cream and butter values have shown improvement, although butter is taking longer to recover due to the volumes of in storage.
The business said it will maintain a competitive standard milk price with a separate retailer supplementary payment aimed at its non-aligned producers.
Competitive prices
“It is important to stress that our standard price is competitive in its own right, but with the addition of the retailer supplement, actual realizations for Müller non-aligned farmers are substantially higher than those received by farmers supplying other processors who receive similar supplements but choose not to offer the same level of transparency,” Chapman said.
She added that the additional supplement is aimed at Müller farmers who aren’t already part of one of our supermarket aligned groups.
“We wouldn’t be able to achieve this if the supplement was simply absorbed into our standard liter price and, as a result, spread across all Müller suppliers including some aligned producers,” she said.
“Whether our farmers are in a supermarket group or not, it is our intention to optimize their actual returns each month.”