In draft accounts seen by the Irish Farmers Journal, the IFA is reporting an operating loss of €246,965 for the 12 months to the end of March 2019.

While the farm organisation is loss-making, it has improved its fortunes compared with the prior year, when it made an operating loss of €1.5m.

Income for the 12 months was down 1.6% to €15.99m.

Membership revenue

An increase in membership revenue was offset by a marginal decrease levies.

Expenditure fell by €1.3m to €16.2m. Overall, the association made a pre-tax loss of €1.3m compared to a pre-tax gain of €0.7m in 2018.

The key driver to the increases in pre-tax losses related to paper losses of €1.1m concerning share price movements in FBD. The accounts will be presented to IFA council this Friday.