Morrison’s clients have raised £ 20 million to support the farms and countryside. (Photo supplied) // Morrisons ‘For Farmers’ program reaches £ 20m // Sales of Morrisons ‘For Farmers’ egg and dairy ranges help UK farmers invest in sustainability and animal husbandry / / The program has led to increased forest and insect habitats, more grazing and free time to roam, and new initiatives for cow comfort.
Morrisons customers have raised £ 20 million to support British farms and the countryside by choosing to pay a little more for products from the grocery store’s For Farmers range.
Retailer Big 4 said funds raised have been “reinvested” in a variety of farming schemes to enhance biodiversity and further enhance animal welfare, in a period when British farmers faced financial uncertainty due to Brexit and the pandemic. Covid-19.
In October 2015, Morrisons was the first British retailer to launch a dairy product in which part of the purchase price was returned directly to farmers.
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Milk For Farmers was the original product, at 10 pence per liter more than Morrisons standard private label milk, and all the difference was passed on to their dairy farmers.
The range now includes Cheese For Farmers, Cream For Farmers, and Eggs For Farmers, which similarly give customers the opportunity to pay a little more to help farmers directly.
Morrisons also said that the funds from the For Farmers range have helped the agricultural and natural environment, citing their For Farmers ‘Chuckle Eggs’ range as an example.
At an additional cost of 1 cent per egg, the retailer said this has allowed farmers to invest money in planting forests and creating insect-friendly wildflower habitats for their free-range chickens to roam.
To date, 169 acres have been planted, Morrisons said, and a similar insect habitat scheme is being rolled out this month across all of the supermarket giant’s dairy farms.
Meanwhile, money from the Milk for Farmers range has enabled more investment in animal husbandry from the 140 dairy farmers aligned with Morrisons.
Farmers selling directly into the Morrisons Milk For Farmers range grazed their cows for an average of 224 days last year, more than 100 days longer than required.
Unlike other supermarkets, Morrisons deals directly with the farmers who stock its shelves, about 3,000 of them, rather than with the wholesalers.
“Our farmers continue to face some uncertainty due to the impact of Brexit and the pandemic,” said Morrison’s director of agriculture, Sophie Throup.
“So we are pleased to have transferred £ 20 million from our For Farmers range to help fund initiatives that may otherwise have been underinvested.
“It’s great to see that many customers want to pay more to support British farmers and want to buy dairy from cows that have been left to graze and eggs from free-range chickens that can roam in enriched areas of forests and grasslands.”
Meanwhile, Morrisons has already embarked on a program to be fully supplied by UK farms with net zero carbon emissions by 2030, five years ahead of the market.
Over the next nine years, the grocery store will work with its 3,000 farmers and producers to produce net, affordable meat, poultry, fruits and vegetables with zero carbon emissions.
Morrisons will also work with universities, agricultural and rural organizations, and carbon experts as part of the program.
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