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Dai Miles[/caption]
The opening of a new £1.5 million dairy in Carmarthenshire that will process and bottle up to 10 million litres of milk each year was welcomed by the Farmers' Union of Wales today.
The Proper Welsh Milk Company officially opened the dairy in Whitland. It is the first to be built in Wales for more than a generation.
FUW Pembrokeshire county branch president and director of The Proper Welsh Milk Company Dai Miles said: "The opening of the new dairy is excellent news for the Welsh dairy industry.
"All of our milk is sourced from local farms and will reach Welsh stores within 24 hours of collection.
"There is a lot of high quality milk being produced in Wales but the trouble is that most of it has been bottled and processed in England and then it has to make the journey back here to Wales.
"Twenty or 30 years ago there was probably a dairy in every Welsh town but as road networks grew so the smaller dairies were closed.
"This left only a couple of units in North Wales and some very small operations in the South, meaning that almost every pint of milk you've drunk lately has travelled hundreds of miles," said Mr Miles.
"Having the new dairy here means that we can reduce journey times and mileage for getting our milk from the farm to the consumers and it will boost jobs. In the current economic climate and rising fuel costs this is great news for farmers and consumers.
"Welsh dairy farmers have a limited range of options when looking to sell their milk and often have to accept unfair and unclear contracts, which requires them to sell all their milk to just one buyer who has the monopoly over the price they are willing to pay for the milk.
"We are currently looking for more conventional milk suppliers and in future we hope to diversify into higher value dairy products," added Mr Miles.