A LLYN couple who decided to take back control on their farm and launch their own milk brand are to star in a new BBC show on Monday night.
On the Llyn Peninsula, Nia and Sion Jones are taking back control of the dairy supply chain with their own Llaethdy Llyn milk brand and bottling plant – and they are one of the businesses featured in the final programme in the BBC Wales series Gareth Wyn Jones – Milk Man.
The series has shown that selling milk to the market leaves small producers vulnerable to powerful buyers, and hill farmer Gareth, from Llanfairfechan, is on the hunt for examples of ways Welsh dairy farmers can add value to their milk.
The far west of north Wales is seen as too far from the motorway system to try and win one of the supermarket milk contracts that guarantees a fair price to farmers.
As a small farm with 80 cows, the Jones family say they’ve been forced to find another way of working.
They believe they’ve spotted a gap in the market – and are literally betting the farm on the idea that people will buy local milk.
“There’s no local milk at all in north west Wales,” says Nia on the programme, “it’s all brought in – to an area which is full of dairy cattle. Absolutely mad. But that’s what we are aiming for – that’s our selling point. It’s fresh, it’s local and it’s out on the shelf in a day.”
The family decided to take back control of the whole supply chain and are milking, processing, bottling and delivering their milk to the local area.
Every week their plant can bottle almost 10,000 pints of milk – and it’s all done by hand.
Where most of the major retailers sell four pints for a pound, it costs around 50p more for four pints of Nia and Sion’s milk – but they think it’s worth every penny.
The programme also visits businesses such as Caws Cenarth near Newcastle Emlyn, Chilly Cow ice cream near Ruthin and Hafod Cheese, near Lampeter.
The show airs tonight at 10.40pm.
Source: Cambrian News
