The Irish Farmers Association (IFA) has highlighted the fact that a fair wholesale price for private label milk is needed, as high input costs could threaten shop supply next winter.
Keith O’Boyle, the IFA’s liquid milk chair, commented that fair pricing should be ensured by the Office for Fairness and Transparency in the Agri-Food Supply Chain, which was recently approved by Cabinet.
Many farmers are currently questioning why they are taking on extra costs and effort which is needed to milk all year around. O’Boyle stressed that liquid milk farmers need a bigger premium.
“While the price of milk for manufacturing has been going up, this is eating into the extra premium farmers are normally paid for producing fresh milk all year around. In the meantime, retailers must increase the price of milk and pass the entire differential back to the primary producer,” he said. “Price won’t be a big concern if retailers cannot secure a sufficient supply of fresh milk next winter,” he added.
O’Boyle went on say that “The dominance of private label milk sales in Ireland has eroded the margin paid back to farmers to such an extent that a regular and consistent supply of milk on our shop shelves cannot be guaranteed.”
He pointed out that producing fresh milk requires farmers to milk their cows all year at significant extra cost, and that this is currently being compounded by the surge in input prices.