Aurivo and Dale Farm are both set to grow their milk pool having secured additional litres from new suppliers who have switched from LacPatrick and Lakeland.

A spokesperson for Aurivo confirmed that it has taken on three new suppliers from the north Antrim area, all of whom were previously supplying LacPatrick.

The new suppliers will bring with them a combined three million litres, adding to the existing pool of approximately 80m litres in Northern Ireland.

Milk collection

Aurivo started milk collection from these new farms on 1 July. It is understood that the three new suppliers, all former Town of Monaghan suppliers, are not committed to any form of supply agreement with Aurivo, and senior representatives within the co-op insist that no special deals have been done.