AN INDUSTRY group has demanded a milk price rise of at least 2pp litre, warning that the demand is non-negotiable.

Without it the dairy industry faces complete meltdown.

The Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers met the NFU of England and Wales, Farmers For Action and NFU Scotland at last week's Dairy Event, in response to the worst crisis dairy farmers have faced since the milk industry was deregulated in the early Nineties.

Speaking for the group, Tim Brigstocke, RABDF chairman, said: "Dairy farmers have lost money for the past three years and very few businesses could exist for much longer in this desperate situation.

"In the last eight years, doorstep milk prices have increased by 11pc and shop prices have increased by 7pc, yet the price the dairy farmer receives has dropped by more than 30pc.

"There is widespread unrest among milk producers and increasingly farmers are calling for direct action.

"Unless the milk price to producers increases by at least 2p a litre, the core of the milk production industry will not survive. As a united group everyone, including Farmers For Action, would prefer rational argument as a way forward."

David Handley, chairman of Farmers For Action, in his packed Spotlight Forums at the Dairy Event, said direct action would only be a last resort.

"But our message to processors and retailers is that time has run out for many dairy farmers and their patience is exhausted," he said.

The price farmers received for their milk, said Mr Brigstocke, must take account of the need for economic, environmental and social sustainability or, quite simply, the UK milk production industry would cease to exist