Milk producers face €5.5m super levy
She said the estimated fat-adjusted milk deliveries at the end of February 2005 were 0.23% over the national quota. Ms Coughlan stressed the responsibility for managing quotas and ultimately the payment of super levy rests with the individual producer.
“It is vitally important individual producers should review their own situation, taking into account their own production levels, the level of deliveries to their co-operative/ dairy and the national situation,” she said.
The IFA has meanwhile reminded co-op boards, who are about to decide February milk prices, that Dairygold will be increasing its price by 1c/gal. Dairy Committee chairman Michael Murphy said this was a precedent.
Producers expect their co-ops to achieve efficiencies, internally and in co-operation with other processors, to be able to deliver improved farmers’ incomes in the long run, he said.
Pointing out the IFA is involved in a series of meetings with co-ops, he said he intended to impress upon all of them the necessity to develop a cross-industry strategy making farmers’ incomes their top objective.
While farmers are making constant efforts to become more efficient, they are faced with increasingly costly obligations of compliance.
Their ability to earn a viable income in coming years will depend critically on co-ops moving away from a price-cutting logic to a cost-cutting one.
