Young dairy farmers ‘upbeat’ and set to take advantage of post-quota era

THE FACT that imports make up one in every four litres of milk being sold in Ireland did nothing to dent the upbeat mood of the thousands of young farmers attending yesterday’s Teagasc Moore-park ’11 in Fermoy, Co Cork.

The young farmers were in Fermoy to get technical advice on boosting production. Their expansion plans are built around exporting more dairy product overseas. Thus, they are not too put off by growing competition for domestic liquid milk sales.

News of milk imports reaching 25% was released yesterday by the National Milk Agency (NMA), the statutory regulatory body for the supply of milk for processing for liquid consumption in the State. Almost all of this milk is from Northern Ireland, mostly own brand products in Dunnes, Aldi and Lidl.