Farmers to take fight to Tesco in Londonderry

McAuley Multimedia 3rd August 2015 Dairy Farmers protest because of milk prices at Sainsbury's Supermarket in Coleraine. PICTURE STEVEN MCAULEY/MCAULEY MULTIMEDIA

Protests have been taking place across Western Europe against the prices paid by large supermarkets to farmers for their produce.

The UK has faced widespread protests, mostly centred on the price of milk, while farmers from France, Germany and Spain have blocked roads over the lack of compensation from large supermarkets for their produce.

Locally, dozens of farmers protested against low milk prices in Strabane earlier this month. Coleraine has also witnessed huge protests.

Now, farmers in Londonderry are taking the fight to Tesco in Lisnagelvin on Friday evening (August 28).

Donemana farmer Clayton Fulton said: “This is just to get a fair price for the milk from the big supermarkets, the likes of Asda, Tesco and Lidl, who are selling the milk maybe at a loss just to get people in the door.

“It’s very bad at the minute for farmers. We’re only getting 18 pence per litre and it is set to get worse.

“We’re going to tell people about the problems we are facing.

“A lot of farmers are going to go out of business.

“We’re out £1,800 to £1,900 a week over the head of this, from feeding the stock, electricity, everything.

“We can only keep that going for so long.”