Milk farmers should be expected 36c/l from processors for May milk, according to the ICMSA dairy chair Ger Quain.

He said that ICMSA analysis of the current market conditions indicated co-ops had held back on the April milk price given to suppliers.

“Some of the processors did increase price for April supplies. But some – inexplicably – did not. That means that that price rise is already overdue and will certainly have to be passed back in the next announcement for May supplies.

“The Ornua PPI is 34.15c/l excluding added value of over 2c/l, meaning that there is a larger difference being left between what the processors got and what they passed on. We expect that to be closed in the upcoming round of price announcements,” Quain said.

“There’s a ‘low and slow’ feel to some of this that’s making milk suppliers suspicious. We’re seeing the second ‘bounce’ of 2021 dairy markets when some farmers have still not got the benefits of the first ‘bounce’.

“The most recent milk market developments have seen all products increase, with the industry standard butter/SMP mix rising by the equivalent of 1.5c/l in the last two weeks.

“WMP increased by a cent per litre in the same time frame, according to Dutch Dairy Quotations.”

He said these increases needed to be translated into a farm price in the next milk price announcement.