A huge level of anger is building up among Glanbia suppliers over milk price, according to IFA dairy chair Tom Phelan. He said that conversations with numerous suppliers clearly show just how dangerously out of touch Glanbia has become as to how important a benchmark milk price is to farmers.

Glanbia was last in the March milk league, as the only milk purchaser to cut pay-out to farmers in both February and March.

“Glanbia rightly prides itself in being a leading player in the dairy industry. But farmers supplying Glanbia legitimately expect it to be a leading payer, too. And in this respect, all the farmers I speak to at the moment are bitterly disappointed with the poor Glanbia milk price performance,” Phelan said.

Ultimately, farmers will judge processors on the milk price every month, not schemes and bonuses, according to Phelan.

“Glanbia Ireland [GI] takes a margin of 3.2% after tax, the highest in the industry. It must convince farmers that its ambition is not just to be a leading player, but also a leading payer.”

Focus

In response, a spokesperson for Glanbia said: “Rather than focusing on a headline price in a particular month, Glanbia milk price performance should be judged on the basis of the annual KPMG Milk Price Review. We remain committed to achieving a very competitive milk price performance in 2019 on that measure.”

“Glanbia Ireland (GI) is investing to create long term value for all shareholders – a profit level of 3.2% is required to achieve this objective for everyone’s benefit. Furthermore, a substantial portion of the profit generated by GI flows back to active farmers via the co-op.”

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