LANCASHIRE farmers say they support a planned march to Downing Street to protest against a sharp fall in the price farmers receive for milk.

The campaign group, Farmers for Action, plans to march on London next month (March) as it demands that the Government takes action to ease the situation.

Last summer, Aldi, Lidl, Asda and Morrisons were targeted by protesters who led cows down the aisle of an Asda store in Stafford after it emerged that they paid less for milk than Tesco and Sainsbury's and did not base prices on the cost of production.

The latest row has broken out following rumours that Tesco is moving 200million litres of milk from farmers co-operative Arla to privately owned Muller.

A spokesperson for the NFYFC, said: "The National Federation of Young Farmers’ Clubs acknowledges the extremely difficult circumstances that dairy farmers currently find themselves in.

"With the current global supply of milk substantially outweighing the demand, supermarkets are able to sell milk at lower prices, which currently has a knock-on effect to the supplier.

"This situation means that dairy farmers are finding it increasingly difficult to recover their production costs.

"It is clear that this situation needs remedying and the NFYFC is fully dedicated in its support to the dairy industry.

"Many young people are passionate about this topic and individuals are taking it upon themselves to participate in protests.

"We support their right to do so, as long as the protests are peaceful, law-abiding and do not tarnish the reputation of the farming industry."

NFU dairy board chairman Rob Harrison said: "With no sign of a market upturn in coming months we will inevitably see a large number of dairy farmers leave the industry. No-one can continue to produce milk at a loss.

"I’d urge every dairy farmer out there to seriously look at his or her own business and question whether it can survive another period of low milk prices.

"Producing milk at a loss benefits no-one and we all want a strong, resilient industry here in the UK.

"Altogether the whole dairy supply chain needs to come together to look at ways of managing price volatility as the current situation is not sustainable for anyone."