European Commission calls for EU-wide investigation into dairy prices

THE EU wants national competition authorities to investigate why huge drops in the prices paid to farmers for milk, butter and cheese are not being passed on to consumers.

Nobody is sure who is taking the profit, but farmers are definitely not benefiting as they are now getting less for a litre of milk than it costs them to produce it, a report from the European Commission says.

They have launched an investigation to find out exactly where the money goes as milk leaves the farm, goes through processing factories and into the supermarkets.