Following on from a robust meeting between the UFU dairy committee and CEO’s from Dale Farm, Lakeland Dairies and Glanbia Cheese, the union’s milk price indicator (MPI) is to be reviewed.

“To avoid any future friction or misunderstanding, we agreed that we would revisit the components of the MPI in conjunction with our processors” commented UFU President Ivor Ferguson after the meeting last week.

The MPI is calculated using data from the GDT and Dutch Dairy Board auctions, as well as the actual milk price equivalent (AMPE) and milk for cheese value equivalent (MCVE) published by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (ADHB) in Britain. In 2014 both AMPE and MCVE were updated, to include revised processing costs.

While some in the processing industry question whether these processing costs are still relevant, it should also be pointed out that there is no allowance made for either a processor margin or transport costs in either MCVE or AMPE. As a result, neither a processor margin nor transport costs are allowed for in the UFU MPI. It is therefore primarily an indicator of market trends. The latest MPI is 29.77p/l, down from 29.95p/l, mainly as a result of a 4.7% fall in last weeks’ GDT auction.

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