The Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) has said it is angry and bewildered by the latest round of cuts to milk prices.

According to the new chair of the UFU dairy committee, Mervyn Gordon, local farmgate milk prices are now lagging behind what the market is capable of returning.

“It is about time processors stepped up to the mark and paid their producers the true price for milk,” said Gordon.

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Meanwhile, the latest milk price indicator (MPI) published by the UFU is at 29.07p/l, and throughout the spring of 2019 it has been repeatedly above 28.5p/l.

Included in the MPI is a cost for processing milk, but excluded is a processor margin and milk transport costs. It is generally accepted that it’s reasonable to take 2p/l-2.5p/l off the MPI to translate it into a price paid to producers.

Doing that takes the MPI to between 26.5p/l and 27p/l, which is broadly in line with the prices paid for milk in March.

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