Offaly farmers in milk spill threat
Producers call meeting to seek urgent lift in prices
Tuesday October 06 2009
Dairy farmers in Co Offaly are threatening to spill milk rather than supply it to dairies at current prices.
The group claim to have the backing of more than 50 milk suppliers in the county, with members supplying Glanbia, Connacht Gold, Arrabawn and Lakeland Dairies.
The milk producers have formed a crisis committee and will hold an open meeting at the County Arms Hotel in Birr this Thursday evening (8pm) to outline their position to other dairy farmers.
The group's secretary Richard Friday said the producers' group wanted a base price for milk and the introduction of an independently audited pricing structure.
Mr Friday said farmers were disillusioned and dissatisfied with the current situation.
"Dairy farmers will go out of business if prices don't improve. We aim to get a base price for milk and independent auditing. If this doesn't happen, we will start withholding milk," he insisted.
Meanwhile, IFA national dairy committee chairman Richard Kennedy said increased returns from butter and powders should be reflected in an immediate September milk price increase of at least 1c/l. Such a move would also boost farmer confidence, he said.
The Dutch Dairy Board increased its butter price to €2,670/t last week, a full 21pc above the intervention price. Mr Kennedy pointed out that Dutch dairy Friesland Campina were now paying more than 25.66c/l for August milk, 3.6c/l above the July price.
"European commodity prices, particularly butter, SMP, whole milk powder and whey powder, have been rising rapidly for the past few weeks. Little or no product is now being sold into intervention, and international demand has been picking up in earnest," he said.
Mr Kennedy maintained that prices available on the principle European markets put food-grade SMP and butter at an equivalent of 27.7c/l; whole milk powder at 26.8c/l; cheddar cheese on the British market and whey powder at 27.5c/l.
"These compare with the August Irish Dairy Board (IDB) payout for SMP and butter of 24.2c/l. There is clearly significant scope for the IDB to increase their September price top-up, to be decided in coming weeks, on both butter and SMP," Mr Kennedy said.
"As markets are now definitely in recovery mode, there is an immediate, fully justified opportunity for Irish co-ops to improve farmer payouts for the month of September by a minimum of 1c/l, and we believe that further price increases will be possible in coming months as markets continue to improve," Mr Kennedy maintained.
- Declan O'Brien
Irish Independent
