All co-ops have passed on increases to their farmer members for September milk. However, farm organisations have slammed them for not passing on greater returns to farmers.
The majority of co-ops have increased the August price by 1c/litre for September. Glanbia and Lakeland were the first to increase for September. Glanbia Ingredients Ireland (GII) increased by 2c/l, but the Glanbia co-op support went from 2c/l to 1/l, which resulted in a net increase for members of 1c/l on August.
IFA dairy committee chair Seán O’Leary said co-ops had been “too conservative in setting the September milk price”.
O’Leary pointed to a 1.4% increase in Tuesday’s Global Dairy Trade (GDT) as well as an 11.2-point increase in the Ornua PPI since July as the reasons for wanting greater increases from co-ops.
ICMSA dairy committee chair Gerald Quain said a 1c/l increase was demonstrably well short of market improvements and he accused co-ops of “yet again” holding back on milk price improvements for farmers.
LacPatrick has announced a fixed milk price scheme for 2017, at 28.4c/l (ex-VAT) in the Republic of Ireland and 25p/l in Northern Ireland.
After a stutter two weeks ago, the GDT in New Zealand showed life again this week. The average price of whole milk powder (WMP) increased by almost 3% to $2,760/t, while butter prices were up 2.6% to just under $4,000/t.
Meanwhile, the IFA will hold a liquid milk rally in the Heritage Hotel, Portloaise, Co Laois, next Tuesday 25 October.
September milk prices
The Irish Farmers Journal reports milk price excluding VAT.
LacPatrick offers fixed price at 25p/l in Northern Ireland