Dairy Farming

My hon. Friend makes a good point. I want to focus on milk, but others may wish to discuss other milk commodities and derivatives. Many retailers do not pay our dairy farmers a proper price for the commodities that they produce, as she has said so eloquently, but I shall focus on milk because, for producers throughout the UK, milk is the main produce of the dairy farm. None the less, I accept that the price that those farmers receive for yoghurts, cheeses and other milk-based products is a problem. There has been increasing coverage of dairy farming issues over recent months, and I am sure that the Minister is aware that a key problem is the contracts that dairy farmers are tied into with the retailers. Before going into that aspect, however, it is worth setting out the background to the problem. There is increasing concern that the milk industry is in crisis. Milk is a perishable product, as we all know, and farmers have little choice but to enter into contracts that often feature exploitative terms and conditions. These contracts contain no certainty about the price that will be paid from month to month, and producers are locked into contracts with notice periods of 12 or 18 months and with penalty clauses from the moment that they announce that they wish to move to another retailer. Such penalty clauses often include a section on price, which adversely affects the farmer.