A CUMBRIAN dairy business is pledging to pay above the market rate for milk to help struggling farmers.

North Lakes Foods, based at Gilwilly Industrial Estate, Penrith, supplies fresh milk, flavoured milk, cheeses, yoghurt, butter, cream, eggs, fresh orange juice and bottled water.

Customers include Westmorland Services at Tebay, Pioneer Foods in Carlisle, convenience stores, hotels, and dozens of doorstep milk rounds.

The business buys 100,000 litres of milk each week from four local suppliers and has a vested interested in keeping them viable.

Managing director Wayne Jackson said: 

“The market price [for milk] is around 19p to 20p a litre. We pay 23.6p but at one point we were paying nearly 35p – it has come down a lot.

“We speak regularly to our suppliers and we've said that we'll try and keep our prices up as long as we can.

"I don't know of any other industry where the customer tells the supplier what they are going to pay for the product.

“The [milk] processors say what they are willing to pay and the farmers have to take it on the chin.”

The collapsing milk price has pushed many out of the industry. There are now only 784 producers in Cumbria, down from 1,089 10 years ago.

North Lakes supplies bottled milk to Cumbria County Council for schools and care homes, and recently installed a 189ml plastic-bottle filler enabling it to supply the milk in bottles, rather than waxed cardboard cartons.

Bottles are more hygenic and easier to recycle.