A base milk price of 53 cents per litre is fully justified for May milk, according to Noel Murphy, chairperson of ICMSA’s Dairy Committee. He said that co-op boards should be considering this as the minimum when they meet next week to set last month’s milk price.
The most recent Dutch dairy quotations show that the market has not only steadied but is actually moving upwards again. Murphy said that all the indicators are positive and dairy farmers must get the benefits of the improved market returns to offset the long list of escalating input costs.
“We have to say that we were a little taken aback by the recent comments by Minister McConalogue in which he cited the record milk prices, without ever referencing the rocketing input costs that have effectively wiped out any benefits that would have accrued due to those milk prices.
“To reference one without the other is effectively to give only half the story. The kind of input inflation we are seeing now is eating through even the high prices we are receiving, and it means that milk suppliers absolutely have to get every half-cent that their co-ops can pass back.
“This has never been about price, this has always been about margin. We can see immediately that the market is returning well in excess of 53cpl to milk processors, so we are demanding that this becomes the base price for May milk,” Murphy said.