Glanbia suppliers accessing their milk statements online yesterday (Wed) were very surprised, and some very angry, at the unannounced reduction in milk price for milk allocated to the 2015/’16 Fixed Milk price schemes.

A double adjustment of market prices and farm input costs on milk in the 2016 Fixed Milk Price schemes mean some July cheques have been reduced by between 2c/litre and 4.1c/litre. For some suppliers with a large proportion of milk in fixed schemes this could mean a reduction in the July cheque of between €2,000 and €5,000.

When Glanbia suppliers signed up to the voluntary pricing scheme they agreed to a retrospective adjustment based on the cost of production and the movement in base milk prices.

The cost of production is estimated by Glanbia on the basket of goods used to produce milk (seeds, feed, fertiliser, etc).

The fixed milk price for the 2015/’16 scheme is currently returning a price of 31.85c/l so in reality this is now between 27c/l and 28c/l.

The 2015 fixed price adjustments were in the order of 0.1c/l but given the changes in the 2016 market the price adjustments are much more significant ranging from 3.62c/l, 4.18c/l and 2.0c/l, depending on the scheme.

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