Room for Further Price Increases on December Milk – O’leary

The first GDT auction of 2017, which saw a weighted average decrease in the index of 3.9%, does not reduce the scope for further milk price increases for Irish dairy farmers on their December milk, IFA Dairy Chairman Sean O’Leary has said. He called on co-op boards to increase prices as markets justify.

“Despite the average decrease in today’s GDT index, the price of butter rose by 0.5%, and that of SMP by 2.3%. Today’s GDT prices for those two products would yield an Irish milk price equivalent of just over 36c/l before VAT,” Mr O’Leary said.

“Meanwhile, the latest available EU market prices for butter and SMP as reported by the EU Milk Market Observatory just before Christmas would return an Irish milk price equivalent of just over 32c/l before VAT,” he added.

“With milk output continuing to decrease globally, and demand remaining solid in both developed and emerging countries, I see no reason why co-ops would not have the confidence to increase milk prices, both for December milk, and indeed into the spring,” Sean O’Leary concluded.