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The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) is calling on processors paying low milk prices to come forward with cheque top-ups to take their suppliers in line with higher-paying co-ops.
Its dairy committee chair Noel Murphy described cuts to June milk prices as a “public disgrace”, saying that a 4c/l milk price gap between processors is unacceptable for farmers.
“From high inputs to poor weather conditions, 2023 has been very hard for dairy farmers from a financial and farm management perspective,” Murphy stated.
“Add in the changes to the nitrates regulation and the potential changes to come and it is hard to be optimistic as to where milk volumes will be produced in the coming years.
Margins
“Margins in 2023 will be incredibly tight given milk price and the mysteriously slow rate of input price decreases,” he added.
The committee chair maintains that there is no need to further drop supplier prices.
“There is no doubt that markets have recovered from their lowest point earlier in the year, but there does appear to be just a pause before buyers re-enter the market and demand feeds through,” Murphy said.
“In any case, we are adamant that there is no case whatsoever for further cuts to milk price.
“That can’t happen; there’s no data to support that anywhere and we are sure that this frankly dishonest option is ‘off the table’ for the foreseeable future.”
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