Would You Pay More For A Pint?

[chrissa1]

.......of milk at the supermarket?

How can the dairy farmers continue to produce milk when it costs them 28p/day to produce it and they have to sell it at 23p?

This has been going on for ages and in my view is, wrong. I wouldn't mind paying an extra few pence. No business can survive selling their goods at a loss.

[Mamyalynne]

Only a pint a week here but I'd gladly pay more.

[Ouzel]

Yes - provided the dairy farmer got the benefit, rather than the supermarket.

[baza]

8 pints for £2 in local co op, 85p for 4 pints in Farmfoods, clearly the farmers are not paid enough. Would I pay more, YES.

[Svejk]

Not likely. In fact, I'd schlepp across town to get a few extra pence off. It's called supply and demand and unless you're sucking on the state teat we're all subject to it. It's how capitalism is supposed to work.
Talking of the state teat, I don't suppose EU farm subsidies ever get a mention in the poor farmers' sob stories.

[chrissa1]

Capitalism: "An economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state."

How are the private owners, (the farmers) be expected to survive when they are forced to accept less than it costs them to produce the milk?

The bullies, ie, the supermarkets, are at fault here.

[Gromit]

We are already paying more for milk.

Farmers don't live on the preceeds of the milk they produce, they live off the proceeds of huge EU grants that the cows attract.. Cows are there to get grants, not to produce milk. We produce too much milk so it is powdered and dumped onto third world countries, which then decimates local milk production.

http://farmsubsidy.openspending.org

[mikey4444]

To answer the question directly, yes I would be prepared to pay more for milk.

Its the old, old story of how the greedy manipulative supermarkets are braking the backs of their suppliers.

[chrissa1]

If the supermarkets want to attract us into their shops by offering low milk prices, it is Them, who should take the hit in their profits, not the producers of the goods.

My late husband and I had our own business. We sold the product at a price that at the very least, covered the cost of making it. If our customers wanted to sell it on at a lower price, it was again, Them who took the hit. There was no way we could have survived and employed staff if we were selling at a loss.

It just doesn't make economic sense.

[Gromit]

Mikey, no it isn't.

It is a story of greedy farmers milking the EU tax payer of £millions in subsidies. It is the story of over supply, and tax payers money keeping uneconomical and unviable businesses open. We could stop paying the farmers vast amounts, and let real market forces work. Half the farms would shut, but we would still produce plenty of food and prices would not rise for the consumer. I

f the £59billion the EU gives farmers was kept by the member states, then the money could be better spent encouraging viable new businesses.

[chrissa1]

You're in the minority here, Gromit.

[Hopkirk]

Oh I don't think so, Gromit makes very valid points.

[Gromit]

Chrissa1,
yes I am.

No business can sell its product for less than it costs to make. So how are these Dairy Farms still in business?

[youngmafbog]

All are assuming it is the nasty supermarket driving the price down. Yes they are a bit player but many are using mild and bread as a loss leader, the loss being to them the supermarket. They do this because they place these items at the back of the store and most people will buy more items from which the supermarket makes a large profit.

I'm afraid the EU has a large part to play in this. Subsidized farms in France (and other countries), subsidized by us I would like to point out, are able to sell their produce cheaper so driving the price down.

Paying extra won't necessarily help if the milk (or other produce) comes from a French farmer.

The EU does our Farming and fishing industries much harm. But try telling the europhiles that.

[chrissa1]

Selling cheaper is fair enough but, Not at a loss. What the French farmers do is up to them. They're all bonkers to start with. :)

[Canary42]

Yes.

[chrissa1]

//No business can sell its product for less than it costs to make. So how are these Dairy Farms still in business?//

A huge overdraft, perchance?

[youngmafbog]

//What the French farmers do is up to them//

No it is not, we, the British, pay them handsomely

//Selling cheaper is fair enough but, Not at a loss//

Never been in the retail business then? Read what I put about why they do it. The overall transaction is generally not a loss.

[ludwig]

I'd like to see 'fair trade' products for British farmers in the same way that they do for foreign ones, so you'd get more expensive fair trade milk on the shelf alongside the ripoff stuff.

At least then the consumer would have the choice of whether they wanted to be complicit in putting our dairy farmers out of business instead of the supermarkets taking that decision for them.

[Bathsheba]

I wouldn't mind paying a bit more if it helps our farmers. Considering there's only the two of us, we get through a fair amount of milk in a week,....about 10 litres. I use UHT, skimmed, which is 65p per litre. I shop online with Sainsbury's, to save my poor back ;)

[Old_Geezer]

Yes. I have no idea how much I pay for a pint I just pay what they ask for at the till.

This is capitalism. Prices go down, some go to the wall, then there are fewer domestic producers so the price goes up again (to the cost the foreign countries export it for). If one feels a need to adjust that how about a Milk Marketing Board ? Has anyone tried that ion the past ?