Holyrood summit to save dairy industry

Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead will chair a Holyrood summit of leading figures on Tuesday to address the challenges facing Scotland’s dairy industry.

Representatives from the Scottish Government, NFU Scotland, processors, retailers and finance sectors have been invited.

“Our dairy sector is facing a number of on-going challenges including low prices which have resulted in hardship for many producers,” said Lochhead.

“I recognise that much of the current difficulty stems from unfavourable global market conditions but I believe that progress can be made on a number of areas that, collectively, would help increase the resilience of the sector, which is why I am inviting key industry figures to meet me to discuss what further steps that can be taken to help the sector, building on the dairy action plan I published last year.

“Earlier this week I agreed that the Scottish Government would provide an additional £30,000 of funding to dairy farmers on Bute to go towards the cost of tankers returning empty on ferries to Bute from the mainland.”