Morrisons Announce Price Increase
Published 30 May 2008

Morrisons has announced that all its own label standard fresh milk will be sourced and sold regionally from the end of June. The supermarket also stated it will pay 1ppl more to processors on the volume of milk purchased which is to be passed directly to farmers.
 
Morrisons’ c400 million litres is supplied by Dairy Crest and Arla. Morrisons has stated it will establish a dairy farmers’ producer group in conjunction with the processors, however neither of the two processors have yet released exact details regarding how  the initiative will be run .

Morrisons took a different approach from other supermarkets who have either dedicated or nominated supply pools. Martyn Jones, Group Trading Director, said: “This is about helping as many dairy farmers as possible.  It is designed to benefit more of the dairy farming community, not just a select few.”

This initiative could therefore be seen as fairer for dairy farmers, although the price increase per farmer will be smaller than 1ppl as it will be shared amongst all non-dedicated Dairy Crest and Arla liquid milk suppliers. Furthermore, it avoids creating extra costs and inefficiencies in the supply chain which may be associated with dedicated supply and segregated supply pools.

Another difference to some other supermarkets is that shoppers will not have to pay extra to purchase regional milk.