Dairy board chief points to impact of biofuels

LAST year’s record surge in market prices for milk products such as powders and butter has peaked withreturns now close to normal levels, but the long term outlook for the industry is still good.

That’s the view of the Irish Dairy Board, a commercial co-operative which sells Irish dairy products on behalf of its processor members in 93 markets worldwide. It had a turnover of over €2 billion in 2006.

Board chairman Michael Cronin said the boom in dairy product prices last year caught everybody by surprise. The reason it happened was that supply failed to meet demand.