Many readers will be sad to hear that Ian Potter, ‘a giant of the dairy industry for three decades’ died on 27 February 2023, due to medical complications after a short illness. As his family wrote on the IPMS website, throughout his career he had the interests of dairy farmers at heart and loved what he did and the industry that he worked in.
The writer first heard of Ian through the pages of the Independent in 2005, which reported that according to the Milk Development Council, about 1,000 dairy farmers were quitting the business every year:
“Ian Potter, a businessman who trades EU milk quotas that authorise dairy farming, said morale in the dairy industry had sunk to dangerously low levels. He said ‘The strike is an indication of how desperate and frustrated dairy farmers are. It’s not something any of them wish to take part in but they just think all other means are failing”.
Ian Potter received the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers’ Princess Royal Award (in 2010 at Buckingham Palace, for his outstanding services to the industry and unique role as a disseminator of up-to-date information through his website and regular press articles.
In July 2013 Ian championed a cause featured on an allied website: Colne businessman David Fishwick who set up a savings and loans institution which offered 5% annual interest and lent it to local businesses at 8.9%, offering a personal guarantee to make good any losses. Profit left after paying the three staff of Burnley Savings and Loans was given to charity.
To read more about his work go to this 9 page account. It includes news of meeting with DairyCo via his PA. Gayle Hackett, Moo Man film promotion, view of the Groceries Supply Code of Practice, links to articles on this site quoting Ian, his congratulations of the Woodcock family at Yew Tree Dairy, support for David Handley and Farmers for Action, writings about soy milk and other plant-based foods, Kite Consultings report and the last item of news, about BeeWalk.
After reading Ian Potter’s downbeat dairy news posted on the Political Concern website, Julian Rose once emailed:
“Ian is an enduring stalwart of the dairy industry. I bought and sold quota through him back in the 1990’s. His prognosis is all too true, it is indeed the supermarket and the global marketing casino that continue to ensure that the price of milk is subject to the roller-coaster ride it has become tragically accustomed to. A roller-coaster which continually forces dairy farming onto its knees”.
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A book of condolences is being opened and contributions are welcomed via condolences.ianpotter@ipmsltd.co.uk
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