A number of Irish dairy processors have made cuts to their August milk price, reflecting ongoing weakness in global dairy markets.

Aurivo and the Carbery Group of co-ops this week cut by 2 c/l, while Town of Monaghan cut by 1.5 c/l. Arrabawn and Lakeland cut by 1 c/l. Glanbia last week cut milk price by 2 c/l, but will pay 2c/l from the stability fund in order to maintain farm gate receipts.

Dairygold will stay at 35 c/l after deciding yesterday to leave August price unchanged.

Last week’s Irish Dairy Board Purchase Price Index showed a drop of 3% to 114.8 for August. The monthly index tracks the price paid by the IDB to member processors for a basket of dairy products.

On Tuesday, there was no change in overall index at the GlobalDairyTrade auction run by Fonterra. This was a welcome change after price drops in 10 of the last 11 auction events.

At present, New Zealand co-op Fonterra is forecasting a milk price of $6 per kg of milksolids – around 27 c/l at Irish equivalents.

IFA National Dairy committee chairman Sean O’Leary said that dairy farmers were still taking the brunt of the Russian ban on imports of dairy products from Europe.

“More decisive EU Commission action is required to help the sector face the consequences of geopolitical developments they cannot be expected to pay for,” O’Leary said.

“It is vital that Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney obtains an extension to 12 months of the Aids to Private Storage (APS) scheme, the revaluation of the ‘safety net’ intervention price levels to match production costs, and the provision of targeted export refunds to help exporters find alternative markets,” he said.