The Isle of Man Creamery, in conjunction with the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture (DEFA) and the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) announced today that the retail price of Isle of Man milk will increase from 57p per pint to 60p per pint from July 1st 2012.
The retail price of milk is controlled by the Milk Price Order which aims to ensure that Manx consumers have a reliable milk supply at a reasonable price. As required by the Order, a Marketing Committee was convened to consider the price increase. Chaired by Kate Beecroft, MHK, the Committee included representatives from DEFA, the Creamery, OFT and dairy farmers. In order to make a decision, the Committee considered local and global agricultural market trends and retail competitor activity.
Managing Director of Isle of Man Creamery, Findlay Macleod, said: “the decision to increase the price of milk has not been taken lightly. Even though we continually look to improve efficiencies and take costs out of our business, we have not been able to keep pace with the increases in input costs which have had a major impact on our processing, packing and distribution expenditure. This regrettably makes the price increase essential to ensure that Isle of Man Creamery and the Island’s dairy industry have a sustainable commercial future, whilst maintaining the Island’s self sufficiency in milk supply”.
DEFA Minister, Mr Phil Gawne MHK said “it is important that Manx consumers have a reliable source of fresh milk and that means dairy farmers must receive a fair return for their milk. I have been persuaded by the case put to me and therefore have supported this milk price increase, the first in 4 years. The Department’s agriculture advisors are on hand to help dairy farmers review their business costs as it is vital that efficiencies are sought throughout the food chain, from farm to the Creamery and to the consumer. This will help to deliver the best possible deal to both consumers and farmers”.
The Chief Officer of the Office of Fair Trading, Mike Ball added “The role of the OFT Board members who sit on the DEFA committee is to represent the interests of consumers. In this case the interests of consumers are best served by a milk price which is as low as possible whilst sustaining a long term local supply of fresh milk. Although consumers never welcome price rises after a review of the operating costs of the Creamery and farm production costs, we accept that this increase is necessary to ensure that Manx milk producers remain viable We have clarified, however, that we would want to see even more detailed analysis of farm production costs undertaken before any future review of milk prices”.
Isle of Man Creamery will ensure that the milk price increase is communicated clearly to all retail and wholesale customers in the Isle of Man by July 1st 2012.
