The 41c/l January milk price announced by Lakeland Dairies places the co-op more than 5c/l behind the Ornua purchase price index (PPI), leaving the full burden of increased processing costs on farmers, the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) has claimed.

The IFA stated that farmers should not be expected to sustain this burden and that the 5c/l differential between Lakeland’s milk price and the Ornua PPI was unjustifiable.

“While 41c/l may look like a healthy price, our margins are being eroded by rapidly rising input costs,” said IFA dairy chair Stephen Arthur.

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“Seasonal bonuses cannot be used as smokescreens by processors to portray a rise in milk price. We need an increase in the actual base price and 1c won’t cut it,” he said.

The dairy chair called on Glanbia and the co-ops still with January milk prices to set to adequately reflect increased production costs in their announcements.

“Glanbia and the remaining milk processors who have yet to announce a milk price for January must pay what the markets are returning.

“Farmers need a milk price in the mid-40s in order to cover our cost of production which has soared in the past 12 months,” concluded Arthur.