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IFA dairy chair Tom Phelan has said that improved market returns have not been reflected by co-ops for some months.
He said that this was angering farmers and could only be explained by co-ops rebuilding balance sheets after supporting farmers in 2018 and showing ‘no ambition’ for spring 2020 milk prices.
The dairy committee will meet with the co-ops to question board members on their pricing policies.
“Irish milk prices have lost touch with the European trends outlined in the LTO monthly league around May of 2018 and have underperformed massively ever since, with a fast-widening gap now reaching up to 4c/l,” said Phelan.
“While European milk prices were stable, Irish co-ops were busy cutting our late spring and summer prices.”
Fallen behind
He outlined that Irish milk prices have fallen behind the Ornua PPI, with the exception of the west-Cork co-ops for the past 12 months.
He also accused the co-ops of camouflaging poor base milk prices by quoting them using average solids instead of the accepted standard.
“This is hijacking farmers’ hard work and is insulting to them. The difference between October and March solids could be as much as 3.8c/l – that’s a cashflow-crippling €1,600 shortfall on March supplies for our 500,000-litre supplier,” he said.
“Farmers cannot accept being short-changed on milk prices. Board members and management teams must now outline their plans to improve milk prices this year-end and before spring 2020.”
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