Dairy industry has to do more to clean up its act

IN the past few weeks the Irish dairy sector has been hit by a number of shocks, all of them directly traceable to the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

Down in Glanbia, shareholder farmer anger over falling milk prices resulted in a no confidence motion against the existing dairy co-op board at the recent annual general meeting.

This is serious given the co-op still has slightly more than 50% of the plc, where the management is striving valiantly to move the group in the direction of food ingredients products, based on their own dairy research.