I congratulate the hon. Member for Dunfermline and West Fife (Thomas Docherty) on securing this debate.
Staffordshire is one of the UK’s leading dairy counties. Dairy farming is important to my constituency; let us not forget how important it is to so many others. Some 70 trades and suppliers, possibly more, are estimated to depend on each 400-acre dairy farm.
Another almost unique feature is that Staffordshire has kept its county farms, which were set up after the first world war. Half of Staffordshire’s county farms, some 50 of them, are in my constituency of Stafford. Those farms provide a route into dairy farming for young people, which is essential because the average age of farmers is between 55 and 65, depending on who we listen to.
Last Friday, I attended a meeting at Church farm, Coppenhall, at the invitation of the Madders family, with many dairy farmers and the National Farmers Union. We discussed the problems they face. As time is brief, I will highlight three or four areas.
Clearly, the first area is milk prices and fair treatment. The common refrain was, “Give us the highs in prices and we’ll take the lows.” It is often said that the processors and supermarkets are quick to put down the prices paid to farmers but are slow to raise them when the market goes up, and the market will surely go up because, if we consider dairy production figures across Europe in August 2012, in Germany production was 0.3% down, in France production was 1.7% down and in the UK production was 3.7% down. Those figures reflect a combination of the weather and low milk prices. So there will surely be price rises, which must be passed on to farmers.
The second vital area is marketing. Many of my constituents are already taking up the challenge of adding value—Bertelin Farmhouse Cheese in Ellenhall, for example, which was previously in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Stone (Mr Cash), who will no doubt know the farm—but there is much more potential. I have recently had to start buying lactose-free milk, for which there is a huge market in the UK, yet the milk I buy is made in Denmark by Arla.