Glanbia has announced it will pay farmers 20c/l (including VAT) for milk lost during Storm Emma, where a farm insurance policy does not cover milk lost.

The vast majority of the Glanbia milk catchment area has been in a Status Red weather alert zone in recent days.

This forced the complete shutdown of farm milk collection and processing activities for a period.

Milk collection has resumed on Saturday in some areas, but only where it is safe to do so. However, the scale of the backlog and the state of rural roads means that it will take significant time (depending on conditions) to reach all dairy farms.

"In some cases, this will be too late to collect milk of appropriate quality for processing, or to reach farms before bulk tanks exceed their capacity," a statement from Glanbia on Saturday read.

In the statement, Glanbia Group chairman Henry Corbally praised the efforts made by its suppliers, hauliers and staff to ensure that milk was collected from the majority of farmers immediately prior to the Storm Emma's onset.

Welcome

IFA dairy chair Tom Phelan described the Glanbia move as "a welcome signal of support, which we hope others will follow".

However, he added that the key issue is try to get milk collections going again.

“It is welcome to hear the Taoiseach state that this will be a priority for councils working with the relevant co-ops. It is important that this translates into real action on the ground,” said Phelan.

UK situation

In the UK, Arla has said it will pay the cost of farmers’ milk if collection is unavailable due to roads being blocked.

“The lengths farmers go to so that we can continue to enjoy dairy products needs to be recognised and as a farmer-owned dairy cooperative if we can take the worry off farmers by guaranteeing they will get paid, it is the right thing to do in these extreme circumstances,” Graham Wilkinson of Arla Foods UK said.

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