A milk venture by Derbyshire farmers has collapsed with the loss of 75 jobs and the prospect of financial ruin for investors.

The Amelca milk processing plant went into receivership in August, just three months after about 150 farmers invested �7m in the project.

The state-of-the-art �15m plant was intended to breathe life into local faming after the foot-and-mouth crisis last year.

Receivers Deloitte and Touche kept the plant at Foston running in order to sell it as a going concern but have now closed it after losses continued.

It involved farmers trying to add value to their product

John Ward

The aim of the milk processing plant was to get the producers closer to their buyers.

But the company hit trouble after a slow take-up in sales, said Deloitte and Touche.

It will now be sold as a non-operating company.

John Ward, from the National Farmers Union, said: "It is a very sorry situation because Amelca was a prime example of the way farming should have been going.

"It involved collaboration, it involved farmers trying to add value to their product and I think it is a sad day.

"A lot of people put in a lot of money and when the receivers were appointed it looked even then like they were going to lose most of it and I think now that is definite."