Arla’s milk price for May will fall to 29.89p per litre as the dairy market entered 'unprecedented territory' due to the Covid-19 crisis.
The British cooperative's on-account prices for conventional and organic milk will decrease by 1 eurocent for May 2020.
When applied to the UK manufacturing price this is a 0.9ppl reduction, bringing conventional milk to 29.89 and organic milk to 38.93 pence per litre.
Arla Foods amba board director, Arthur Fearnall, said that because of the coronavirus crisis, and the actions taken by governments to limit its spread, the dairy market had moved into 'unprecedented territory'.
"Despite some short-term increase in retail sales, the closure of many foodservice businesses, alongside the spring peak in milk production and the uncertain global economic outlook, has caused significant reductions in commodity market prices across all categories in the space of a few weeks.
"Due to the continuing impact of the current situation, the outlook remains uncertain,” Mr Fearnall explained.
The impacts of coronavirus have been felt across the global dairy industry, not just the UK, Graham Wilkinson, agriculture director at Arla Foods UK, added.
He said: "As a cooperative owned by dairy farmers, Arla is not immune from these developments and we are working hard to manage the significant fluctuations in demand and the challenges this brings.
"Following the announcement from the government to temporarily relax competition rules, we welcome the opportunity for the industry to be able to work more closely together at this time to build more robust plans to navigate through this crisis.”
