Store hails fair milk scheme

The pioneering Fair Milk scheme pledges to pay the highest market price to farmers, ensuring farmers receive a fair price for their milk, covering the cost of production and enabling them to invest in a stable, profitable future as a result.

Customer research carried out by independently audited ABA indicated 93 per cent percent of Booths’ shoppers supported the ethos of fair milk and would continue to buy milk that paid a fair price to farmers, even if that meant paying more for milk. Also, 66 per cent percent of shoppers said that the fair price paid to farmer on Booths milk was their most important consideration on purchase.

Booths CEO Chris Dee said: “I’m gratified, but not surprised by the support of our customers for Fair Milk.

“Paying farmers a fair price for milk is as important to us as a business as it is to our customers. We trade in rural locales and our farmers are often our customers, giving a fair deal is core to our buying ethos.”

He said the two-year impact on the family farms producing milk for Booths had been staggering. The fair price paid to farmers had enabled all the farms supplying Booths to make significant capital investments to their farms, improving livestock conditions and working conditions for the farmers.

The UK now has fewer than 10,000 dairy farmers, less than half the number in 2002.