Any possible merger between Aurivo Co-op and Dale Farm rests on Ornua giving the deal the green light, farmers in attendance at the Irish Farmers Journal’s Dairy Day were told.

Aurivo chair Raymond Barlow said that there is an issue with Dale Farm not being a member of Ornua.

“We need to sort that out before we go any further. Otherwise, there’s nothing happening in the talks of a possible merger. We need to clear that hurdle. I think Ornua have been very positive to us, we’ve a seriously good relationship with Ornua and we value them very much. We’d like be able to bring something to our members. At the end of the day this will go back to the members. “We’ve a marts business, we’ve a very good store business – all that comes back into the mix.

“We’d like to be able to bring a proposition based on a commercial business plan, rather than an emotional plan or parish politics. We need to get out there [and] be proactive rather than reactive,” he said.

He said Aurivo is trading 70% of its product with Ornua, it’s a 7% shareholder in Kerrygold Park, Ornua packs butter for Aurivo and it also has a cream contract with Ornua. “We needed clarity on one or two issues with Ornua. We’ve sought that and we await their response on that because we’re not going to invest time in monetary sense or human resources, we’ve two businesses to run before we go any further.

“Clarity or maybe a blessing from Ornua is our first step, if that goes well, which I think it will, we then get down to talking to our boards. Our boards have given us the go ahead to talk initially, but we haven’t scoped anything out. There’s no meat on the bones yet, it’s a raw carcase, it’s a carcase with a lot of potential.”