Milk prices: UK farmers' unions to meet over pricing crisis

Unions representing farmers around the UK are to host an "urgent" summit to discuss the product pricing crisis that has hit the industry.

Some dairy and livestock farmers have said they face going out of business if prices for their products do not rise.

Dairy farmers currently receive about 19p a litre for milk, well below the cost of production at about 27p.

Farmers have been holding a number of protests at supermarkets to show their frustration at the prices they receive.

But the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium has said the fall in milk prices is due to "global economic trends".

The Ulster Farmers' Union (UFU) will meet with the National Farmers' Union and its Welsh and Scottish branches to call for "a commitment to back British farming".

Frustration among farmers was beginning to spill over "into actions no-one wants", according to Ian Marshall, the president of the UFU.

He said changes in the industry was needed before the situation worsened.

"This is a multi-factorial problem across the entire industry, both sectorally and geographically, for which there is no single solution," he said.

"But it is essential that everyone in government and the supply chain plays their part in helping to urgently address these genuine and serious difficulties."

NFU president Meurig Raymond said he wanted to see the government doing more to "support the public procurement of British food".

"The situation many of our members are experiencing has become a crisis," he said.

"In dairy, many milk producers have seen price cut after price cut. It's simply not sustainable for any farmer to continue to produce milk if they're selling it at a loss."

On Monday, protests were held at three supermarkets in Coleraine in County Londonderry.

Farmers surrounded the milk fridge in the town's Sainsbury's store in an attempt to let shoppers know how their incomes have fallen, and a lorry delivering milk to a Tesco store was blocked.