Farmers Should Engage with Their Elected Dairygold Reps to Get Changes to Loyalty Scheme

IFA President Francie Gorman led a delegation yesterday to meet the Dairygold Chair Pat Clancy and CEO Michael Harte regarding the Dairygold loyalty scheme.

The IFA delegation included National Dairy Chair Stephen Arthur, incoming National Dairy Chair Martin McElearney along with Director General Damian McDonald, Director of Policy Tadhg Buckley and Dairy Policy Executive Aine O’Connell. 

“IFA’s consistent position is that co-op trading schemes should not be linked to milk price. IFA dairy representatives locally have been lobbying Dairygold on this issue since December,” he said. 

“We understand that Dairygold is having a round of meetings of their six regional committees this week to review the scheme, and I fully expect that they will get a strong message from farmers that trading schemes should not be linked to milk price” he said.

“It is important that the Co-op takes on board the views of their farmers and adjusts their schemes to reflect that feedback,” he said. 

“There is a huge amount of frustration amongst suppliers about this loyalty scheme and the milk price being paid by Dairygold. However, now is the time to give the democratic structure within the co-op the opportunity to work,” he said.

 “While it is understandable that some of the frustration amongst suppliers has boiled over, the issue should be dealt with through the Dairygold’s regional structure and farmers should make their locally-elected reps aware of their views,” he said.