Retailers in Northern Ireland have defended supermarkets’ milk pricing policy after protests by farmers over what they get paid for their product.
Farmers staged a blockade at two stores in County Londonderry on Thursday and cleared milk from shelves at an Asda store in County Tyrone on Friday.
Farmers for Action said milk was being sold cheaper than bottled water.
But the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium blamed the fall in milk prices on “global economic trends”.
‘Exchange rates’
The consortium’s director, Aodhán Connolly, said: “The price of water and the price of milk are completely different things. “What we have to understand here is that it’s global economic trends, that are beyond the control of Northern Ireland farmers and Northern Ireland retailers, that are the root cause of the reduced price for milk at the moment.” Mr Connolly told the BBC’s Good Morning Ulster programme that the price retailers pay farmers “is not connected to the price they charge customers”. “Individual retailers have decided to cut milk prices and they, not farmers, are paying for the price cuts that are currently being enjoyed by consumers,” he added. Read more