Milk price decline to cost farmers over €500m
Deputy president Pat McCormack said Irish dairy farmers have already lost €220m this year, due to the reduced prices.
“This massive reduction in revenues will not only be felt at farm level, but in every business that is dependent on rural Ireland for its business.
"Measures need to be taken immediately to stabilise the milk price situation and provide confidence to farmers to continue to invest in their business,” he said.
Mr McCormack said farmers, who are also faced with superlevy fines and expansion related debt, are now producing more milk for less money than this time last year.
They want to see immediate measures introduced that will stabilise the market situation and ensure that there are no further reductions in milk price.
He said the EU must immediately increase the intervention price to 28c/l and send a clear signal to the market that it will not accept EU farmers producing milk below cost of production.
ICMSA president John Comer warned that farmers are becoming frustrated at the lack of action from the Government and the European Commission to stabilise dairy markets.
He said a French government proposal to delay the payment of income tax for three months to support its farmers, who are engaged in major protests over falling prices, has a direct relevance to Ireland.
“Irish farmers will argue strongly that if it can be done in France when product prices are poor, there is absolutely no reason why a similar initiative cannot be introduced in Ireland,” he said.
