Shropshire farmers empty supermarket shelves in milk price protest

Farmers in Shropshire today swept though supermarkets clearing the shelves of milk cartons in a new wave of protests over cuts to the price paid for milk.

Dubbed the Milk Trolley Challenge, the protest has seen farmers removing all cartons of milk from shops including ASDA, Morrisons and Lidl, either paying for the goods or dumping them at the checkout.

Many have filmed the protest on mobile phones and posted the footage on the internet in a bid to spread their message.

One protester shouts "too cheap, take it away" as the group loads cartons of milk into a line of trolleys in the store.

The move comes after Arla, Britain's biggest milk co-operative, announced a price cut of 0.8 p per litre - taking the standard litre price to 23.01p for its UK members, prompting the protests.

Farmers say it costs between 30 and 32p to produce each litre of milk, according to British dairy organisation AHDB Dairy.

Meurig Raymond, president of the NFU, said: "The market situation in dairy, lamb and many other products is driving farming families to a desperate state with returns from the market failing to cover costs of production.

"Farmers have worked very hard to gain the respect and support of the public for great British food - now farmers simply want and need a fair return for years' of investment.

"Given the current situation some farmers have been driven to take direct action; the NFU supports protests that have a proper target and a clear objective.

"However, we believe that the best way for farmers to get a fairer return would be for consumers to demand British food.

"Our survey work has shown that 85% of people want to see retailers selling more British food. Now is not the time to alienate our loyal customers."