The body aims to be ‘the voice of the dairy industry’ and its members include dairy processors, farming representatives, co-ops and bottle milk buyers.
Sam Fortescue said he would be helping to ‘tackle the many challenges that the industry is facing, from government and EU legislation, to environmental and nutritional issues’.
He joins the Dairy UK as the industry attempts to bat off allegations of price-fixing.
The Office of Fair Trading’s recent investigation into the dairy industry concluded many supermarkets and dairies broke competition law by fixing the retail price of milk, cheese and butter. This price-fixing is estimated to have cost the consumer £270m.
Dairy UK currently retains Media House as its external PR agency. The trade body recently called on the Government to raise the value of its ‘Healthy Start’ voucher, which entitles some people to free milk, fresh fruit and vegetables. Rising prices have seen the real value of the voucher drop by over 20 per cent since it started four years ago, it claims.
