Farmers warned they may lose control of dairy industry
John Egan warned the ICMSA officers that farmers lost control of the beef industry, and the dairy industry was now in danger of following the same route.
He said forcing dairy processors to pay more for milk than the market returns or profitability can justify is suicidal, as far as farmer control of the industry is concerned.
Dairygold Co-op’s recent milk price cut was sharply criticised at the meeting.
But Mr Egan said, “Dairygold has served farmers well down the years, and I hope that you can get your problems with the society sorted out, because the Board of Management have to protect the interest of the society, and it is important that farmers retain control of the business in their own interest“.
He said, “Farm organisations can be very critical of the operation of the co-ops, but they have to face reality and look at where the costs of running these operations are to come from“.
“We can’t say pay up on one hand and drive a society into liquidation on the other hand. We saw what happened in a co-op of our own here in 1989, paying the best price in the league, it went belly up. Were it not for two plcs, Golden Vale and Kerry, the farmers who supplied the milk would have been in serious difficulty. That is a situation that should never again arise. It is high time that the farming organisations seriously faced up to the realities”.
Mr Egan said that there was nothing in the recent report on the rationalisation of the dairy sector to show how it could be financed.
Martin Heenan, Kilmeedy told the meeting that smaller co-ops are paying the best prices for milk, and rationalisation is not the solution to the difficulties in the dairy industry.
Gerard Quain, chairman, Co Limerick ICMSA, said the rationalisation recommendation was not the solution, because farmers cannot be expected to come up with the money to have it implemented.
John Egan responded, “If the farmers are not prepared to put in the money, then they won’t own the industry”.
