Little sign multiples will pay more for milk NFU and other farming leaders took the opportunity at the European Dairy Farming Event at Stoneleigh to stress the need for dairy farmers to get another milk price increase from October in order to ensure "stability" in the industry. There were suggestions that 1p per litre, or about 5%, was what was needed to give farmers the confidence they needed to stay in milk production, to meet rising costs and to invest in the future. If a rise were secured this would be the third in a little over 12 months following a general round of increases of around 1p in October last year and a further 2p per litre from April. These levels of increase have been confirmed by the latest DEFRA survey of average farm gate prices which showed an uplift of 3.1p per litre in June and 2.8p per litre in July on a year earlier. However there is little sign supermarkets are prepared to pay more for liquid milk supplies. The product markets, such as butter, cheese and milk powders, depend mainly on price levels elsewhere in the EU and there is little indication any of these markets are about to show any price rises. In fact prices for the main dairy commodities have tended to weaken slightly across Europe in recent weeks. The only hope of a change in attitudes would come from a weakening of sterling against the euro, which would tend to push UK market prices upwards. {{CANNED GOODS }}

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