IFA Dairy Executive Catherine Lascurettes has said that milk producers across the EU are in "crisis" with regard to the prices they are receiving. The dairy exective was speaking today (Thursday) at an international dairy conference organised by Barry Wilson, Editor of the Dairy Industry Newsletter.

Lascurettes qualified her statement, however, by saying this "crisis" is now part of an increasingly familiar cycle of volatile markets and incomes, which needs to be managed for the long term. She continued by saying the best way to manage this volatility is by using new tools and new thinking.

Some of the new tools presented on by Lascurettes include fixed-price contracts and advisory programmes to improve on-farm efficiencies and help develop better financial and business planning skills.

The Executive also discussed the flexible loan packages on offer from some banks, which allow for interest only repayment when margins are low without the need for repricing, and the extension of the three-year income averaging tax scheme to 5 years.

Catherine Lascurettes also outlined a number of other areas that require further exploration and action by industry, Government, the EU and other stakeholders.

Those include new voluntary hedging solutions for milk prices, more individualised taxation options allowing farmers to better manage their variable income, the need to better resource the Teagasc one-to-one farm advisory service to help farmers improve efficiency and financial planning, as well as promoting greater participation by farmers to Knowledge Transfer programmes (Discussion Groups).

Attendees at the conference included senior executives from the British and international dairy industries, farmer and other stakeholder representatives, as well as retailers and banks.