All of the main buyers of milk from farms in Northern Ireland have held their base prices for March supplies at the same level as for February 2014. This may be the end of the long run of relatively stable prices that has been sustained since September 2013.

Now the buyers are looking at reductions in price for April supplies, but it seems these are unlikely to bring prices back to the levels seen in March last year. As indicated in Table 1, all of the current March milk base prices are ahead of 12 months ago by between 4p/litre and 6p/litre.

Further analysis of the prices over the past 12 months will be published in next week’s Irish Farmers Journal.

First European business for Avondale Foods

Lurgan-based Avondale Foods has won its first European business deal, with a contract to supply supermarkets across the Netherlands.

Assisted in the venture by Invest NI (the company that specialises in packaged salads, soups, sauces and bread snacks), Avondale is to supply garlic butter dough balls to HEMA, the Amsterdam-based discount retail chain.