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Good morning and welcome to the 16th meeting in 2015 of the Rural Affairs, Climate Change and Environment Committee. I remind everyone to switch off mobile phones, as they interfere with members’ thought processes. Tablets are being used for committee business. We have received apologies from Alex Fergusson and Dave Thompson.
Item 1 is a decision on whether to consider the committee’s draft letter to the Scottish Government on mandatory public sector climate change reporting in private at future meetings. Does anybody have any comments to make?
I have no comment to make on that item but, before we come to the next item, I would like to raise another issue. I request that the committee recalls representatives of First Milk to give evidence on milk pricing. I suggest that the committee invites the chairman and the new chief executive.
Members will be aware that, on Friday, First Milk communicated with its Scottish suppliers, reducing the price of milk by 0.2p a litre, which is very serious. Even more serious, the price paid to the 13 Bute producers has been reduced by 1.2p a litre, making it just over 16p a litre. That is utterly uneconomic and disastrous. It also breaches what the co-operative has done up to now, which is pay everybody the same price for their milk. The reason that was given to the Bute farmers was the cost of transportation, but the price reduction suggests that the cost of transportation is between £350,000 and £400,000 a year—nearly double the actual cost of transportation.
The reduction is deeply resented in Bute, where there is a huge amount of anger. The director of First Milk attended a meeting on Sunday and, I think, realised that. It is very important that the committee understands what First Milk is doing, particularly as it appears to be a threat to the viability of dairy farming in Bute.
Thank you for that. We previously agreed to discuss our work programme in private, and I suggest that we discuss that matter in private during that item, when we will review other issues that we have dealt with before.
Is the committee agreed to take the letter on mandatory public sector climate change reporting in private?
Members indicated agreement.
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