How was 2018 for Centenary Thurles Co-op?

It was a busy year. We broke the €100m turnover mark for the first time in the history of the co-op. This was driven by increased milk sales and a very strong year for animal feed and fertiliser sales. Our pig farm business had a difficult year, with pig prices on the floor for much of 2018. Pig prices have since improved due to the outbreak of African swine fever in China and we’ve now put our 450-sow pig unit on the market.

What’s the mood among farmers?

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Dairy farmers are positive. It’s been an excellent year, with perfect weather for the last nine months. The milk price has held up, costs are lower and higher production is contributing to reasonable returns. The outlook for beef farmers is very negative at the minute. On the tillage side, crops are in excellent condition and I expect our grain intake to be around 19,000t this year.

How are dairy markets this year?

Dairy markets seem to be steady enough this year and milk prices are generally stable. Last year, we added more than €0.5m to our milk price volatility fund, which brings it to more than €1.3m. Our target is to build this milk price volatility fund to €2m, which would allow us to pay the equivalent of 1c/l on 200m litres of milk.

Why have you established this milk price volatility fund?

The year 2016 was a very bad one for dairy markets and we had to support milk prices directly from profits, which led to the co-op making an operating loss that year. After 2016, we decided to build this rainy day fund for the next time dairy markets get weak. One thing for sure is that this fund will be needed some day.

How is Centenary’s liquid milk business performing?

The liquid milk market is very challenging. The shift to own-label milk is putting pressure on sales volumes. However, we’re very close to launching our new liquid milk brand from cows eating only non-GMO feed. We will be the first Irish co-op to launch a product of this kind. We’ve completed the non-GMO audit process and have achieved the required certification from FoodChain ID, an independent audit company based in the UK.

Do you think there’s a market for this milk in Ireland?

We’ve done the market research on this and there is definitely a market here in Ireland for this type of milk. I think it’s a product that will appeal to urban consumers in places like Dublin. We’re now working on the labelling and we think our new liquid milk brand will be on shelves in a couple of months.

What sort of volumes do you anticipate this product to sell?

We’re not targeting huge volumes. There’s not a mass market for milk made from non-GMO feed but it will be big volumes for us because our liquid milk plant here in Thurles is quite small. This product will achieve a higher premium on the shelf and we think it will be a way of arresting the decline in the liquid milk market over recent years.

Title: Chief executive.

Co-op: Centenary Thurles.

Sales: €103.7m.

Farmer suppliers: 338.

Milk pool (2019): 180m litres.