The Irish Farmers Association (IFA) recorded an operational loss of €1.4m for its financial year to the end of March 2017.
Accounts seen by the Irish Farmers Journal show that the day-to-day running of the organisation resulted in an operational loss of just under €2.1m.
While this was in line with forecasted budgets, profits of €645,000 from IFA Telecom bolstered results to leave the IFA with a consolidated operating loss of €1.4m for the year ending March 2017.
Income for the association fell 16% to €16.2m.
This was mainly a result of a decline in farmer levies (EIF) collected over the 12-month period.
However, membership levels were maintained for the year, with income from membership fees actually increasing slightly to €6m.
Expenditure was in line with the previous year.
Overall, the IFA returned a pre-tax surplus (profit) of €816,000 for the year, which was driven by a €2m gain on the value of its investments.
The majority of this relates to the IFA’s shareholding in FBD, where the share price rose 25% in the 12 months.