This is a subscriber-only article
At a co-op board meeting last week, Kerry plc offered Kerry Co-op a 1.75c/l payment for 2017, with the aim of drawing a line under the ongoing 13th payment issue.
A spokesperson for Kerry Group told the Irish Farmers Journal that Kerry committed to pay a leading milk price, which has been in dispute since 2015 and led to arbitration being undertaken.
“We want to move things forward; there is a strong appetite at farm level to move forward on a goodwill basis.”
The group has offered to pay 1.75c/l based on supplies in 2017 to its 3,200 milk suppliers, which is aimed at drawing a line in the sand on the issue of a 13th payment.
The payment is for deliveries in 2017 only and is in relation to the ongoing issue which started in 2015.
“It was communicated through the board of the co-op by the group last week.”
Should the co-op accept the price, suppliers will have to forego the arbitration currently ongoing. It is understood that there are no other overall conditions attached to the payment.
“There appears to be an appetite to resolve this [dispute] and hopefully both sides can agree and move forward.”
Kerry Co-op board chair Mundy Hayes told the Irish Farmers Journal that an offer had been made by the group.
“The offer is being evaluated by the board.
“We very much appreciate Edmond Scanlon taking this into his hands as soon as he came into his new role as CEO [of Kerry Group].”
Dismay
However, a number of suppliers have said that even with the payment offer on the table, there is still no sign of a solid structure going forward.
“We don’t want to be here again in 12/13 months’ time… there is reluctance there to drop the arbitration.”
For the time being, there appears to be no rush to accept the offer.
Kerry holds milk price for October
SHARING OPTIONS: