Glanbia announced this Tuesday that it had cut its members’ May milk price by 1c/l to 21.8c/l excluding VAT at 3.6% fat and 3.3% protein.
The base price of Glanbia Ingredients Ireland (GII) was cut by 2c/l to 19c/l excluding VAT, but GII will pay a once-off top-up of 1c/l on all May manufacturing milk supply. This includes the distribution of the remaining balance of the Ornua “additional cash bonus”.
Glanbia co-op will add a further 2c/l support for its members.
Glanbia chair Henry Corbally said Glanbia appreciates the income challenge caused by the “extreme weakness in the global dairy market”.
“We are doing all we can to support our farmer suppliers, through both GII and the society,” he added, referring to the recent launch of Glanbia’s advance payment (GAP) and MilkFlex finance schemes.
In an interview with the Irish Farmers Journal last week, Corbally rejected suggestions that Glanbia was at the bottom of the milk league: “The only league we judge ourselves on is the annual milk price review by KPMG which takes into account all money paid for manufacturing milk in a full calendar year. I’m confident we will perform very well in the KPMG ranking for 2015 when it is published shortly,” he said.
Carbery
Meanwhile, the board of Carbery has decided to cut its May milk price by 0.5 c/litre. The board is supporting the price with Ornua funds again this month.
It is now up to the individual boards of the four individual co-ops to decide if they will pass back this cut to farmers.
The announcements comes after Lakeland cut its net May milk price by 0.5c/l earlier this week.
This follows a further fall in Ornua’s purchase price index last week, despite positive signs on international dairy markets.
Jack Kennedy contributed reporting for this story