Can we compete? That was the title of a thought-provoking paper presented at the Dairy UK conference I attended in Northern Ireland recently. The international competitiveness of dairy farmers has been the subject of much debate recently. The received wisdom in the past was to argue that there is no way that the UK dairy farming industry, with its high costs and regulatory burdens can ever compete in a liberal world market. But, a question I often throw back is: does it need to?
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