No simple solutions to dairy industry woes

SIGNIFICANT further savings in dairy co-ops through staff or other cost reductions have been ruled out by John Tyrrell, director general of the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society.

He warned farmers there will be no simple solutions to the difficulties facing the dairy sector.

“The dairy industry has taken significant steps to improve efficiency in the recent past, and huge amounts of cost have been taken out. ICOS believes that the real problem with the industry is that it is not properly structured to compete successfully and profitably on the world market. Our scale is too small, we are not aligned closely enough to the market; we have too much reliance on volatile commodities”.