The Irish Dairy Board’s Purchase Price Index (PPI) for October is down 6.7% from the previous month to 102.8. It means that returns from the market are now running 21% behind the same month last year and translate in to prices in the low 30’s at the farmgate.

The weaker euro is helping our exports, but markets are generally weak due to strong milk supply in all the main production regions. An increase in subdued Chinese demand is required to boost sentiment.

IFA dairy chairman Sean O’Leary has urged Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney to seek European Commission assistance over the ongoing impact on the dairy markets from the ban by Russia on food products. O’Leary met with the Minister on Wednesday as part of an Irish Dairy Board delegation.

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“The Minister must work with his fellow Agriculture Council members and our new Irish Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan to re-open the cheese APS scheme, and extend it to a full year to match the announced duration of the Russian ban. It is already clear that the butter APS scheme is helping stabilise EU butter markets, but this scheme and the SMP scheme must also be extended to avoid product coming out of it and onto the market place at the same time as quotas end,” O’Leary said.