NEWS that retail giant Tesco is to pay dairy farmers a guaranteed and sustainable price for the milk they produce has pleased West Devon and Torridge MP Geoffrey Cox. He says the plight of dairy farmers has been one of the issues he was keen to raise since being elected two years ago. Mr Cox has been urging ministers to take action over the troubles in the industry. 'There have been longstanding concerns over the viability of Britain's dairy industry as the prices being paid to farmers for the milk they produce are often not high enough even to cover the farmer's costs,' said Mr Cox. 'The result, in recent years, has been that more than 30 dairy farms have gone out of business each week.' On hearing the announcement by Tesco, the MP said: 'Six years almost to the day since the Prime Minister acknowledged that supermarkets had "pretty much got an armlock" on dairy farmers, and in the midst of an investigation by the Competition Commission, the UK's biggest retailer has finally agreed the fair deal for dairy farmers that we have been calling for. 'I very much hope that the apparent new found respect for the plight of milk producers will be extended into other sectors and that other supermarkets will follow Tesco's example in this case and offer fair contracts to all those who supply them.'