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The Irish dairy industry looks likely to be heading into what could be a very difficult labour supply shortage, as reported in recent weeks. Glanbia’s director of milk supply, Sean Molloy thinks that this problem is not unsolvable with an industry-wide approach from farm right up to Government level.
“As an industry, while we’ve spoken about volatility over the last number of years, the new area focus that needs addressing is the labour shortage not only in terms of numbers but in terms of skills,” points out Molloy.
“It is addressable – but not without a significant concerted effort.”
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Volatility
“Volatility is a feature of the dairy industry and it’s here to stay,” Molloy said. “Fortunately, at the moment we’re at the upward side of that volatility; there are signs of a positive outlook at least for the short term.”
Molloy, however, did stress the need to be cautious and the importance that fixed milk price schemes play in managing that volatility.
“We have between 1.6bn and 2bn gone through the scheme at this stage so it’s a very successful part of our pricing mechanic we’ve managed to expand the volume and because of that the average price has now gone up to 32c/l,” says Molloy.
Butter prices
When asked about the future of the recent surge in butter prices Molloy was quick to urge caution.
“At those very high prices you have to look at the volume that’s being traded and that tends to be quite small. So it looks like the butter could enjoy that price for a period of time but will fall back towards more normal levels.”
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