UNCERTAINTY over the future of Campbeltown Creamery peaked this week, as the fate of the business looked set to be decided at an emergency meeting on Thursday.

With the continued threat of closure hanging over the business if current operators First Milk cannot find someone to take on the creamery, it would appear that the most recent attempt at a takeover – from a foreign businessman – has fallen at one of the final hurdles. Producers are now being called on to support their own buy-out, in order to keep the business, which is vastly important to the area, functioning.

With 29 producers around the Campbeltown region reliant on the creamery, as The Scottish Farmer went to press, a meeting was set for the evening of Thursday, May 16, to scope out potential support for the idea.

A NFU Scotland spokesman explained that it was aware of the ongoing situation and was doing all it could to help the issue move forward. He explained: "The importance of dairying and the creamery to the Campbeltown area is huge, not only from an industry point of view, but for the wider population in general and it is hugely important that a way is found to preserve that in the region.

"From a union perspective, when First Milk made their initial statement on the future of the creamery, we facilitated meetings to try and help producers to make sure they were getting the best outcome that they could. Everyone was disappointed that the deal that was on the table most recently fell through.

"We will be facilitating a meeting on Thursday, May 16, with producers – which union president Andrew McCornick will be attending – to see where things currently are and to assess how best to move forward."

The recent good, dry weather is also starting to have a knock on effect on the milk sector, as Bridge of Allan-based Graham's The Family Dairy have made the move of writing to their producers-suppliers to request that the make cuts to their current levels of milk output.

These cuts are in a varying scale of between 2% and 8%, and would appear to average a 5% cut in output across the board.

Commenting on the decision, managing director at Graham’s The Family Dairy, Robert Graham, said: “Our milk production was up by 10% this year, compared to last year. This is a real challenge for us as an independent family dairy business, as milk volumes must be in line with our customers’ needs.

"We are having positive conversations with our dairy partners and colleagues to address these ongoing challenges, working together on the best way to understand what the milk supply needs to be, and deliver on it.”