Speaker after speaker talked about the prospect of low milk prices staying in place for a long time unless something changed to reduce supply. A combination of expected milk following EU quota removal coupled with Russian, Chinese and global factors have all created the current low global commodity prices.

There were seven speakers in the final session of the Dairy Industry conference in London on Thursday. David Dobbin, Dale Farm, and Jim Bergin, Glanbia Ingredients Ireland, spoke representing the Northern and Southern Irish milk pools respectively. The topic for discussion was the new market crisis – managing the extremes of dairy market volatility. However, many speakers didn’t address the topic at all.

Jim Bergin outlined the recently launched Milkflex loans to farms and a history of the Glanbia fixed milk price schemes. Among other points, David Dobbin emphasised the need for Northern Ireland farmers to improve productivity. He said: “It is clear the bottom quartile of farmers have an opportunity to increase margin by 5p/litre by better genetics etc. Yes, there is a role for co-ops to manage volatility, and they must be more market-orientated.”

New dairy products

Peter Glortz-Carlsen from Arla Foods Europe and Andrew McInnes, Muller Milk and Ingredients, addressed attendees in the morning. They both presented details of how they plan to get more milk out of Europe and into regions of the world where demand is growing. Peter explained that 50% of new dairy products launched now have some sort of a sustainability claim. This has increased from 5% in 2011. Peter also said Arla is committed to incentivising all farmers to produce GMO-free milk because Arla thinks it can commercialise it.

Andrew explained the Muller ambition to be the biggest and best milk and ingredients business in the UK and Ireland. Muller has 1,900 dairy farmers now in the UK and he said the company now has an owner who has capability and desire to invest in the business with a long-term perspective. He said: “Contrast that to the Dairy Crest model, which was hand to mouth to meet shareholders needs. The destiny of this business is in our own hands given recent deals and out of any investment comes more.”

More to follow in print and online.

Read more coverage from the Dairy Industry Conference in London

Commission watching EU milk flows – Tynan