Warning over all-year-round supplies of milk after liquid producers get lowest ever price premium

All-year-round suppliers of milk for liquid consumption were paid only 1.74 c/litre more than manufacturing milk suppliers in 2011, the lowest premium on record — which has prompted National Milk Agency chairman Denis Murphy to warn that continued availability of all-year-round milk supplies from registered producers cannot be assured.

He confirmed industry fears that rising costs of winter milk production and the growing attraction of a seasonal milk supply model in a post-EU milk quota environment could lead to loss of some of the 1,790 year-round milk supply contracts, and 160 winter contracts, through which Ireland’s 578 million litres of fresh liquid milk consumption is supplied.

In 2011, consumption increased by 2%; the per capita consumption in Ireland of 0.35 litres per day is the highest in the EU.

Imports of fresh milk from the North now represent more than one in every four litres of fresh milk consumed in the south, with indigenous supplies falling to 74% of consumption.