Farmers in campaign against milk cuts

DAIRY co-op board members are to be lobbied by the IFA in the next few days as part of a campaign to resist milk price cuts.

The move follows a meeting in Brussels last week between EU Farm Commissioner Franz Fischler and a dairy industry delegation led by Agriculture and Food Minister Joe Walsh and IFA president John Dillon.

The IFA leader told the commissioner how dairy farmers had lost an average of €10,200 in 2002, due to price cuts and on-farm cost increases.

He said farmers could not weather any further milk price cuts and asked Commissioner Fischler to implement a number of market management measures to allow dairy markets operate at least 5% above intervention price levels. This would allow milk prices recover to the absolute minimum of 28c/l (£1/gal), and more as markets recover in 2003.

IFA National Dairy Committee chairman Michael Murphy said co-op boards would soon meet to set November milk prices. “Co-ops must hold milk prices through the winter, and seek higher returns for 2003,” he said. Dessie Boylan, president of the ICOS, the co-ops’ umbrella body, said Commissioner Fischler clearly understands that in order for Irish milk prices to be maintained at around 28c per litre (including VAT), the market must return a level of five percent above intervention. This is not currently the case. “Failing action by the commission, the current milk price, which includes over five percent support by co-ops, cannot be sustained. The annualised cost of this support is of the order of €75 million,” he said. Mr Boylan said the commissioner accepted that there is a problem with milk price returns in Ireland. The meeting identified some ways to manage the market and in particular the impact of the timing and degree of release of intervention stocks.

The result of the meeting will only become apparent when they see how the commission manages the dairy market, he said.