ICMSA demands further milk price rises

THE Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association yesterday welcomed Kerry Group’s latest increase in milk price but said farmers still believed there must be a series of other increases in the pipeline.

Dairy Committee chairman Dominic Cronin pointed out that Kerry has a particularly high presence in the casein market and would therefore benefit disproportionately from the surge in that market.

He said the ICMSA would continue to review what he described as the “mysterious gap” between soaring international prices and prices Irish suppliers were receiving belatedly from their own co-ops.

“Farmers are not going to be fobbed-off any more by co-ops announcing minimum increases to them after weeks of surging markets from which the co-ops have benefited in full,” he said.

“What the co-op managements must realise is that farmers can follow the markets as well and we can calculate very precisely the price we should be getting for our milk.

“We acknowledge this Kerry price increase but we repeat our conviction that it must be followed quickly by similar increases of similar scale,” he said.

IFA president Padraig Walshe predicted at Moorepark ‘07 that milk prices will remain strong for at least three years.

“Strong global demand, lower production levels and virtually non-existent stocks have completely changed the outlook for dairy products,” he said.

Teagasc chairman Dr Tom O’Dwyer said that for the first time since 1964 export refunds in the EU are now zero because world prices are higher than European prices for dairy products.