For the best part of a year, we all loved butter and the rising market.

It was the driver of a milk price recovery and everyone was dancing a jig as the price rose from €2,500/t in May 2016 to €7,000/t in July 2017. It has subsequently fallen back to closer to €5,000/t, but the market remains robust for now.

So, it was only natural that co-ops and dairy companies would go to retailers looking for a few pound more to pass back through the milk price.

Well, as I understand it, talks on increasing the retail price of our flagship butter brand Kerrygold have not gone well with a couple of larger retailers, one of them being Dunnes Stores.

The negotiations for Kerrygold are complex. Ornua appoints dairy companies to act as intermediaries between them and the retailer. In the case of Dunnes, Glanbia Ireland is the lucky soul.

Last month, talks took place with retailers to try to increase the retail price in order to reflect the higher market price.

After getting a less than favourable response regarding a price hike for Kerrygold in October, Dunnes would appear to have taken the law into its own hands.

A visit to my local Dunnes over the weekend suggests that, apart from Avonmore milk, Dunnes is no longer stocking any Glanbia brands. None of the cheeses, the soups, the creams or the butters. Nothing.

It looks like a clear retaliation to me from Dunnes.

Naturally, I went to Glanbia looking for a comment and was hit with the usual corporate mumbo-jumbo. A spokesperson said “all our trade arrangements are strictly confidential”.

I asked Dunnes for a comment but, as usual, it would be easier to get blood out of a stone or find out the third secret of Fatima from Margaret Heffernan’s crew.

With retailers such as Dunnes pressing the hard arm on suppliers, you must ask yourself where our robust retailer legislation is now?