Aurivo Co-operative reported a profit after tax of €997,000 for 2023, down from €13.6m the previous year.

The co-op described 2023 as an “extremely challenging” year, saying the more than 16% drop in turnover to €638.6m was driven by falling milk prices and a 39% plunge in the volume of fertiliser sold.

The almost complete wipeout in Aurivo’s profit for the year was driven by the co-op’s decision to support farmgate milk prices as far as it could, CEO Donal Tierney said.

The co-op reported its average milk price for 2023 was 41.04c/l (ex VAT), down from 58.47c/l in 2022. On milk supplies, there was a strong performance, with the pool at 509m litres in 2023, a less than 1% reduction from the previous year.

Suppliers

Aurivo said it gained 30 milk suppliers last year and has more than 20 set to join in 2024.

While there were more exits, Tierney told the Irish Farmers Journal that while the trend is for fewer new suppliers to enter every year, those that do are significantly larger operations than the ones exiting.

One big event for the co-op in 2023 was the completion of the takeover of Arrabawn Co-op’s liquid milk and butter van sales business for a total cost of €8.8m, including fees and stamp duty. In the wake of that acquisition, approximately 25% of Aurivo’s milk pool will be used for its liquid milk business.

The co-op also fully commissioned its new €15.5m evaporator at its Ballaghaderreen site, which Tierney said will ensure the processor has sufficient capacity across the peak milk delivery weeks in future.

Aurivo’s dairy ingredients and agribusiness divisions saw respective 30.6% and 13.9% drops in turnover during the year.

However, revenue at its consumer foods division, which includes liquid milk and butter sales, were flat for the year at €137.5m. The marts division managed to increase revenue by 4.2% to €103.1m.