GREATER TRANSPARENCY NEEDED IN DAIRY SUPPLY CHAIN

The Farmers' Union of Wales today highlighted the need for greater transparency throughout the dairy supply chain by claiming farmers are being short-changed.

"Whilst Tesco are demanding farmers reveal their accounts to an independent assessor or suffer a 0.5p per litre penalty, there is little or no such transparency further down the chain," said FUW's vice president Brian Walters at the Welsh Dairy Show in Carmarthen.

"The closest we have to transparency is data just published by DairyCo on the 2007 dairy supply chain margins," said Mr Walters, who runs an organic dairy farm a few miles from the Nantyci showground.

"These figures suggest that last year processors failed to pass prise rises on to farmers. However, this does not constitute anything like the transparency being demanded of farmers by Tesco."

The report - "Dairy Supply Chain Margins 2007 - concludes that the delay between increases in retail prices and farmgate price rises meant many farmers were short-changed by tens of thousands of pounds at a time of rapidly rising production costs.

"Consumers need to know whether hikes in prices at the till are being passed on to the primary producer or whether they are lining the pockets of fat cats," said Mr Walters.

"I believe that the public genuinely want to support British and Welsh farmers in order to stop the crisis facing domestic milk production and the mass exodus of farmers from the dairy industry.

"They are also becoming increasingly aware of the threat that global food shortages represent for the UK.

"Transparency throughout the food chain would be a significant step towards showing consumers and farmers who gets exactly what, and whether their money is going towards protecting future food supplies.

"Little do consumers know that supermarket margins on liquid milk rose by 2,700 per cent in the ten years leading up to 2007, whilst during the same period the farmers margin fell by five per cent," added Mr Walters.

The FUW has long called for transparency throughout all food supply chains and has presented evidence to this effect to numerous committees including the Welsh Affairs Committee and the Competition Commission.