Milk prices: That was then, this is now.

From the FT, March 2014:

Mark Allen, chief executive of Dairy Crest, one of Britain’s biggest milk processors and maker of Cathedral City cheddar, says: “It is a much better time to be in dairy than for many years”.

Milk producers are luxuriating in a rare combination of rising prices and falling costs, and improving terms of trade between them and the supermarkets and processors.

Even though three large supermarket groups – Tesco, J Sainsbury and Co-operative Food – cut the retail price of 2 litres of milk to £1 this month, it is not the farmers being squeezed this time. Changes to farming contracts, and an improved relationship between producers and retailers, mean the supermarkets are more likely to take the margin hit.

From the BBC, January 2015:

MPs have urged the government to do more to protect dairy farmers from sharp falls in milk prices.

The Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee said farmers were being forced out of business every week by factors beyond their control. The remit of the government's groceries watchdog should be extended to cover dairy suppliers, its report said.

The government said it was doing all it could to help farmers cope with the "volatility of the global market"...

BBC environment correspondent Claire Marshall said to keep cattle well fed and looked after costs a farmer about 30p for each litre of milk produced - but most were being paid just 20p a litre.

"Intense competition among supermarkets is also having an effect," she said. "In several supermarkets you can now buy four pints of milk for just 89p."

Farmers have held protests, urging supermarkets to pay more for their milk.

... cheaper than water

Ah, I fondly remember the good old days of last year, with shock horror headlines like this...

Channel 4 Dispatches find supermarkets selling beer cheaper than water

Today they were clobbering us with this...

Milk cheaper than water: supermarket price war drives down price of a pint

Supermarket price wars have pushed the price of four-pinter milk below that of some bottled waters...

When bought in a four-pint bottle, the price per litre of milk has dipped to 43p, compared to 44p for bottled still water.

If you do the numbers, the pump price (excluding tax) of a litre of petrol is considerably lower, at 32p per litre.

... which all reminds me of the 1985 film Water, the key scene is when Michael Caine has to explain to the disappointed islanders that they can actually sell 'table water' for a far higher price than they could sell the crude oil they were hoping to find.

What goes around comes around, eh?

Health Scare Story Du Jour

According to this, drinking milk is just about as dangerous as smoking.

Problem is, it's not the Daily Mail or somebody saying it, it's Leg-Iron. Would he write this to wind us up?

Ah well, I certainly can't survive without smoking, so I'll see if I can make do without milk, cheese etc. It's the cappuccinos I'll miss. And the cheese, obviously.