Plaid call for supermarkets to stock Welsh milk

Plaid Cymru’s Assembly Member Elin Jones and Penri James have called on Ceredigion’s supermarkets to improve the availability of Welsh milk on their shelves.

Over the past fortnight, Plaid have been surveying the origin of both organic and non-organic milk on sale at supermarkets and large convenience stores throughout Ceredigion.

Three supermarkets came out on top. - CK’s at Waun Fawr, Aberystwyth, Sainsbury’s in Lampeter and Tesco in Cardigan all offered shoppers the opportunity to purchase both organic and non-organic milk from Welsh farms.

Of the 16 places visited, six stores (37 per cent) did not sell any Welsh milk at all. These included discount supermarkets Lidl and Aldi, and the Iceland chain. Organic milk from Wales was available at 50 per cent of the stores visited while non-organic Welsh milk was available at only 31 per cent of the shops.

Penri James said:
“I’m extremely disappointed that such a large proportion of Ceredigion’s supermarkets and convenience stores don’t offer Welsh milk to customers. It’s essential that we support our local agriculture industry as much as possible and I believe that supermarkets have a role to play to help consumers proactively purchase Welsh milk."

Elin Jones said:
“Penri and I have now written to each retailer highlighted in our survey, congratulating those who are already stocking Welsh milk while urging the others to do the same. We were particularly concerned that the Co-operative is only stocking Welsh milk at its Lampeter store, and have asked the chain’s Chief Executive why the same cannot be done at its Aberystwyth and Cardigan stores.

“There's clearly a demand for Welsh milk among consumers and, at present, this demand isn’t being met in all instances. I’d therefore urge Ceredigion residents to ask their local supermarket to start supplying Welsh milk if they don’t already do so. Consumer power is hugely influential on the activities of supermarkets”.