Booths, the family owned food and drink retailer have reiterated their pledge to pay farmers more for their milk than any other supermarket.
In May 2014 Booths launched their Fair Milk scheme, pledging to always pay the highest market price to farmers. The pioneering scheme pledged to ensure that farmers receive a fair price for their milk and could invest in a stable, profitable future as a result.
The market price is collected by an independent price comparison consultancy, milkprices.com, which monitors the farmgate prices of the major UK supermarkets. Booths review the market price regularly, to ensure that Booths are always paying their farmers more than their supermarket rivals. Currently Booths pay 34.5p per litre, the highest price in the market, 1.4p per litre more than Waitrose and 2.78p more than Sainsbury’s.
Chairman Edwin Booth said, “We are proud to pay farmers more for milk than any other supermarket.”
“Paying the highest market price means family farms are able to keep going, invest in the future and spend more time and money looking after their herds to ensure they produce great quality milk. Booths are committed to supporting rural industry and the Fair Milk scheme makes a real difference to our dairy farmers.”
Claire Barber, a farmer from Lancashire who supplies Booths explained that the Fair Milk scheme has been life-changing for her family. “It’s secured our future, the kids’ futures, investment, moving forward, animal health and well-being. The benefits of an assured “fair price” for our milk are not only felt in the financial welfare of the farmer, but in our livestock. The improvements we’ve been able to make on the farm and milking parlour have resulted in our cows producing an increased yield of 3 litres a day.”
“Booths’ Fair Milk scheme is not simply a response to the current farming climate; we made a permanent decision to commit to paying our farmers a fair price. Booths stand by our promise and commit to paying the highest farm gate price for milk in the market,” says Edwin Booth.