THE steep decline in Welsh dairy farmers will continue so long assupermarkets continue to take a bigger share of the profits frommilk sales, the Farmers' Union of Wales has war ned.
New figures released by DairyCo revealed dairy farmers in Walesand England received an average 23.8p per litre for their milkduring 2009/2010 compared to 25.8p the previous year. But theretailers' share of the price went up from 18.8p to 22.4p.
"These figures underline our fears for the traditional Welshdairy farm which has declined sharply in numbers from 2,727 in 2006to 2,094 last year," said the union's milk and dairy producecommittee chairman Eifion Huws.
"And compounding the problem is the fact that the averagefarmgate price paid to Welsh farmers is actually much lower than theWales-England average, because the majority of our milk goes intothe cheese market."
"We now have to ask whether the prices paid to Welsh dairyfarmers are sufficient to give them a sustainable return to enablethem to invest in their business and continue to supply milk in anefficient and profitable manner.
"The Welsh dairy farm has been the backbone of community life inmuch of rural Wales for years and years but these figures don'tprovide any comfort for the future."
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