Conference to look at price volatility management in Irish dairy sector

A cultural shift towards commercial hedging mechanisms to manage volatility in milk price and animal feed costs would make Irish dairy farming more attractive to US agri-food investors.

Based upon recent US studies, the cost of funding such a hedging mechanism translates as 10%-15%, or between 2c and 3.5c per litre at current milk prices. However, to adopt this model would require Ireland to break away from Europe’s interventionist mind-set.

This is one of the key guiding views behind the Managing Price Volatility in the Irish Dairy Sector conference due to take place in Cork Institute of Technology on Monday.