Speaking at Dairygold’s cheese manufacturing facility in Cork, Dairygold chief executive Jim Woulfe said there are positives in the market but co-ops cannot afford to be reckless.

“We’ll take note of where the market is at next week, but of course there are a number of challenges. The positives are that you have a milk supply correction globally, but we still have issues with stock on the market,” he said.

“Some of the EU stocks are stored 18 months and then in the market situation you still have oil lagging below $50/barrel and that is really important in the context of an exporting nation, like ourselves. As soon as improvements happen in the market place we’ll reflect them back to our members.’

Listen to an interview with Jim Woulfe in our podcast below:

Listen to "Dairygold CEO Jim Woulfe" on Spreaker.

When asked where he sees the milk price this time next year Woulfe said that: “We’re setting budgets for the coming year now and we will be budgeting to reflect the current market environment. We’re more optimistic, the supply it’s easing back but we must be steady in this, we must look at where we’ve come from. We’re after 36 months of weak markets and a challenging environment.”

Norway’s largest

The event was held at Dairygold’s Mogeely plant. It is here where Norwegian dairy co-op TINE plans to build a new facility to manufacture Jarlsberg – Norway’s best known cheese brand – for export to Europe, the US and Australia. Norwegian Agriculture Minister, Jon Georg Dale also visited the proposed new site, planting a tree there to mark the occasion.

Dairygold has been manufacturing Jarlsberg Cheese, on behalf of TINE, at its own cheese production facility at Mogeely since 2013. Production at the new plant is expected to commence in 2019.

“We have ambitious plans to grow our Jarlsberg exports and this will require high standards of commitment and quality which Dairygold has always demonstrated,” TINE Chairman, Trond Reierstad said. TINE SA is Norway’s largest producer, distributor and exporter of dairy products with an annual turnover of 22.2bn NOK. It is a cooperative owned by more than 11,000 Norwegian dairy farmers who deliver 1.4bn litres of milk.

Read more

10,000t capactiy investment for Jarlsberg cheese in Cork