Liquid milk producers sound price warning

Liquid milk producers yesterday warned retailers and dairy processors against using the pressure on international milk prices to undermine year-round milk production.

IFA National Liquid Milk Committee chairman Teddy Cashman issued the warning as supermarkets in Britain met farmers’ representatives to address the pressure on dairy producers as the price paid to them falls below production cost.

Mr Cashman said negotiations in France, in recent weeks, resulted in a well-overdue recognition that volatile returns from global commodity markets are neither relevant to retail returns, nor are they a sustainable basis in pricing milk destined for the domestic consumer market.