Farmers protest with mobile parlour

DAIRY farmers milked five cows on mobile parlours near Government Buildings in Dublin yesterday to highlight their falling income.

The protest was organised by the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA), which said farmers are now receiving 20 cent per litre for milk that is sold hours later in supermarkets for €1.25.

Jackie Cahill, ICMSA president, said the bad weather added to farmers’ woes, but that is nature and cannot be avoided.

“What can and should have been avoided are the crazy policies pursued by the European Union and supported by Ireland, aimed at deregulating the dairy market and dismantling the quota system in favour of a free-for-all expansion of milk production,” he said.

Mr Cahill said the ICMSA is not talking down the prospects of a recovery in dairy markets, nor is it opposed to the optimum production of milk in Ireland.

“In fact, we relish the challenge. But the idea of any kind of optimum production at current prices is a delusion,” he said.

Intervention and export refunds are “band-aid” measures he said, and do not address the long-term systemic mismatch of supply and demand.

“We need substantial increase in demand — both within the EU and the world — and a fall in production to restore market balance,” said Mr Cahill.

Meanwhile, stronger action by the European Commission to deal with the difficulties in the dairy market has again been sought by Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith.

Speaking ahead of Monday’s Council of Agriculture Ministers meeting, he said: “The dairy market continues to experience unprecedented difficulties and I share the concerns of milk producers at the severity of the current downturn.”