Examination of Witnesses (Questions 255-259)
8 MARCH 2004
MR ALAN
HINTON, MR
JIM BEGG
AND MR
PETER DAWSON
Q255 Chairman: Can I welcome you to the
second session. Some of you are well known to some of us this
side, so we will not need too many long introductions. If you
would introduce yourself and the other two people, that would
be helpful, and then we will get straight into the session.
Mr Begg: Chairman, my name is
Jim Begg. I am the Director-General of DIAL and I am also a member
of the Dairy Supply Chain Forum. This is Alan Hinton, who is the
Managing Director of ACC Co-operative Group, and on his left is
Peter Dawson, who is DIAL's Policy Director. Chairman:
You well know the way in which we approach this because you
have managed to sit through all the sessions so far and will probably
sit through the remainder of this.
Q256 Diana Organ: You are adamant in
your evidence to us that "UK dairies are not making excess
profits at the expense of producers". I wonder if you could
let me know a little bit about what proportion of the recent increases
in retail prices of liquid milk and cheese has actually been passed
back to the farmers. What proportion has been kept by you? What
have you gained? The supermarkets put the price up, I suspect
from pressure from the consumer that the poor old producer was
really being ground down by it. I want to know what has really
happened. Who got what out of the deal and did they do well out
of it? Mr Hinton: The evidence already given
to the Committee by our members, the major dairy companies, has
indicated quite clearly that all of the monies from the initiatives
have gone back to farmers.
Q257 Diana Organ: You mean you
have had none of it? Mr Hinton: No, it has all
gone back to farmers.
Q258 Diana Organ: You are saying
hand on heart it has all gone back to the farmers and you have
had none of it? Mr Hinton: Our members have
already submitted to the Committee that all of the monies through
the initiatives have gone back to farmers. Of course there is
an occurrence where there could be a timing lapse between the
move and when it went back to farmers, mainly due to the different
types of contracts or who was selling milk and where it was sold
to. Our members have indicated to the Committee that all of these
monies have gone back to farmers. Mr Begg: You
will appreciate that DIAL is a central organisation and we do
not get involved with the purchase or sale of milk. We cannot
say hand on heart that every one of our members did that, we do
not have the accounts.
Q259 Diana Organ: But you do know
what is happening along the chain. Mr Begg:
Yes. What we can say is that in the evidence submitted to the
Committee on that occasion, all of that was passed back. If you
need further information and specifics from individual members,
where these details apply to individual members, I am sure they
will be happy to make that information available to you.
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