Mallee, I don't buy the argument that co-ops/boards don't work nowadays because of free trade and an implied global pricing equality.
Certainly isn't the case with the milk situation in Scotland just now. The real damage being done, what's taking out even some of the best producers is price inequality within the marketplace. Where some guys are losing the farm getting 11p per litre others are getting 30p per litre. Milk is milk - there are price corrections for different protein or butterfat levels but the guys getting the low price are not doing a bad job or producing a poor product they are victims of circumstance. The retailers (big supermarket chains who wield the power in Europe) are playing games by awarding and dropping the supply contracts they give to milk processors so as to manipulate the milk price lower. The milk processors have no real choice but to pass on this pricing to their farmer suppliers. So if you are out of luck because Tesco just severed their supply contact with your processor because they managed to get another processor to sign on cheaper you take the loss. This is the kind of crap that organised producer marketing boards can and should counter - they need to be forced to come up with an acceptable price and that should be awarded equally to all producers supplying the same quality milk. Milk is the commodity best suited to pooled pricing. Nothing socialist about that - just common sense.
Certainly isn't the case with the milk situation in Scotland just now. The real damage being done, what's taking out even some of the best producers is price inequality within the marketplace. Where some guys are losing the farm getting 11p per litre others are getting 30p per litre. Milk is milk - there are price corrections for different protein or butterfat levels but the guys getting the low price are not doing a bad job or producing a poor product they are victims of circumstance. The retailers (big supermarket chains who wield the power in Europe) are playing games by awarding and dropping the supply contracts they give to milk processors so as to manipulate the milk price lower. The milk processors have no real choice but to pass on this pricing to their farmer suppliers. So if you are out of luck because Tesco just severed their supply contact with your processor because they managed to get another processor to sign on cheaper you take the loss. This is the kind of crap that organised producer marketing boards can and should counter - they need to be forced to come up with an acceptable price and that should be awarded equally to all producers supplying the same quality milk. Milk is the commodity best suited to pooled pricing. Nothing socialist about that - just common sense.
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