THE North-East National Farmers' Union has attacked a move by a national milk retailer to put prices up because of the foot-and-mouth crisis.

Express Dairies, which has depots in Northallerton, Middlesbrough and Durham, has informed customers that the price of a pint of milk bought from the milkman is going up.

Prices rose 1p per pint last weekend and letters went out with deliveries.

Express Dairies said it wants to support dairy farmers experiencing difficulties because of the foot-and-mouth virus.

And it claims that by passing on a price rise to the customer it can pay farmers more for their product.

But John Rider, chairman of the North Riding and Durham NFU, said he believed the company was suffering the effects of a shortage of milk.

This was partly due to some dairy herds being slaughtered because of foot-and-mouth, but also many farmers had already gone out of business because milk prices being paid to them were so low.

A spokeswoman for Express Dairies said it was not seeking to profit from the price rise.