FOUR farmers and their families showed their anger and disgust at falling milk prices by organising a protest at a local supermarket.

Dairy farmers Will Giles, Martin Greenway, Derek Greenway, Chris Briggs and their families stormed into Morrison’s supermarket in the centre of Taunton and bought and spoilt all of the store’s milk that was stocked on the shelves.

The group spent more than £100 buying the milk, and also kept some in trollies for around half-an-hour to spoil them, so they could not be sold.

The protest was held on Tuesday afternoon and was organised to not only show their fury at the low prices paid by supermarkets, but to raise awareness of the issue for the general public.

After the farmers bought the milk, they stood outside the shop’s front door and gave it away to shoppers.

It is the latest in a long-line of protests around the country as dairy farmers become increasingly exasperated with the low prices they are paid per litre for milk.

Martin Greenway, who has a dairy farm in Lydeard St Lawrence, said: “We wanted to protest about the prices we are paid by going in there, taking all the milk off the shelves and then giving it away to members of the public, because that is what they are basically doing to us.

“Supermarkets have got far too much power, we don’t have a say at all on how much we sell our milk for.

“Some are now only paying 7p a litre. We need 30p a litre, minimum, because that’s what it costs to produce so that 30p is to break even, that’s not even a profit to live on.

“We really want to raise awareness of the issue, and to show our anger.

“It can’t go on.”

Mr Greenway added: “It cost us £100 to buy them. It would have cost us £150 to produce what we have bought.”

Mr Giles said: “Supermarkets have us over a barrel really. They use milk as a loss leader to get people into the stores.

“Whenever we talk to people, they are willing to pay more for their milk and to help support us.

“Supermarkets always promise a lot but never really deliver. They say they will take the money out of their opwn pockets but they never do, it always comes out of ours.

“It’s also the volatility of the market. Some years can be ok, we had a good year last year but this year we have had a terrible price. It’s ruining us.”

Speaking after the protest, Darren Blackhurst, Morrisons group commercial director, vowed the firm would take action.

He said: “As a leading British retailer Morrisons is focused on delivering great value and we try to pass on lower prices to our customers wherever possible. We do recognise however, due to reduced global demand, that this has created an oversupply of British milk creating difficult conditions for many dairy farmers at present.

"At a constructive meeting on Wednesday with the NFU Dairy Board Chairman, we confirmed that Morrisons is not accepting any further cost price decreases from our suppliers driven by the falling farm gate milk price.”