London, April 11 - With U.K. milk production falling to a 37-year-low, there is now a threat of dairy-product shortages, National Farmers Union of Scotland said Friday.
U.K. 2007-08 (April-March) milk production fell 6.4% on the year to 13.2 billion liters, according to the Rural Payments Agency.
NFUS said the last time production was this low was in 1971 when the U.K. produced 12.9 billion liters.
"We aren't far off a situation whereby shoppers may not find the full range of British dairy products on the shelves," said Willie Lamont, NFUS Milk Committee Chairman and a dairy farmer from Ayrshire. "Shortage is a real threat."
Lamont said dairy farmers are leaving the industry due to a lack of profitability, which has stemmed from rising feed, energy and labor costs.
Feed costs have risen over 100% from where they were in the last couple of year, a NFUS spokeswoman told Dow Jones Newswires.
Adding to the supply pressures, milk consumption has increased by around 3% over the last year, NFUS said.
"The U.K. population has increased by over 4.5 million since 1971 so we are attempting to cater for a far higher number of people with the same amount of milk," said Lamont. "This is unsustainable."