IFA Challenges Dairy Processors to Increase May Milk Price
IFA Dairy chair Stephen Arthur has called on milk processors to increase the price paid to their dairy farmers for their May milk supplies.
Markets are improving, with the GDT this week showing an improvement of 1.7% on the last trade two weeks ago. Butter is trading at almost €7,000 per tonne, up 1.7% and skim is up 3% at €2,722 per tonne.
“Ornua’s PPI return for May is 39.6 c/l, VAT inclusive which is an increase of 1.1 c/l from the previous month, with the Ornua value payment worth an estimated additional 2.97 c/l including VAT. This price represents an increase on Ornua’s PPI return of 4.93c/l since January of this year.”
“Milk volumes continue to lag well behind 2023 levels which means reduced sales for dairy farmers. Together with the increased cost of production from the very difficult spring, dairy farmers need to be paid for their product and we believe the market can support a price increase,” he said.
“An increase in price is needed to alleviate the cashflow pressure on suppliers and it is essential that processors start returning the value gained in the market back to farmers,” he concluded.
