“Where you have multiple processors competing with each other within Ireland, you have destruction of value and lower prices,” said Kevin Lane, chief executive of Ornua, at the event on Thursday in Punchestown, Co Kildare.

Based on his experience in the beef industry, the former chief executive of ABP, Paul Finnerty, supported this view.

“We have relatively small processors in a global context and I’m told that they’re competing with each other. This is only going to bring the price down, especially in commodity markets,” he said.

While the chief executives and chairs of dairy co-ops gathered at Dairy Day stopped short of discussion mergers between their organisations, Dairygold chair James Lynch said there was already tight co-operation between processors. Dairygold itself has 11 agreements to share processing with other organisations, he pointed out.

Meanwhile, speakers from New Zealand said Irish processing could attract bids from overseas companies.

“There’s an increasing Asian presence in New Zealand,” said dairy farmer and former Fonterra board member Greg Gent, adding that an industry that is performing well, such as Ireland’s, was always exposed to takeover attempts from international investors.

Craig Bell, director of the Brazilian milk production and processing company Leitissimo, said a different scenario involving the emergence of a new processor could play out in Ireland – also inspired by what he has seen happening in his native New Zealand.

“You could have a situation where a group of farmers are trying to set up a new player with an external partner, such as a Chinese company,” he said.

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Dairy Day: industry needs strategy before further expansion

Full coverage: Dairy Day 2017