Co-ops urged to pool resources to achieve efficiencies
Irish Co-opertative Organisation Society president Martin Keane suggested that this could be achieved through closer collaboration, joint ventures or fuller scale amalgamations. He was addressing the issue of industry rationalisation at the 39th annual ICOS convention at the Convention Centre in Dublin.
Mr Keane said market volatility has highlighted the need for co-op boards and management to improve competitiveness, increase scale, minimise costs of production and to diversify and add value to their products.
He welcomed as very positive recent developments in the sector such as Lakeland Dairies’ entry into a joint venture with Fane Valley and, separately, Town of Monaghan’s merger with Ballyrashane Creamery to form LacPatrick.
Mr Keane said there are opportunities to achieve greater scale and efficiencies among co-ops across a wide range of functional areas including processing, marketing, product development, export growth, research and development.
“Greater co-operation can pave the way for a shared approach to many of the challenges we face as an industry,” he said.
The ICOS leader said Ireland and its dairy co-ops are very small on a global scale, and need to show a shared approach to demonstrate the industry’s overall strengths and capacity.
“Increased investment in research, development and innovation is absolutely essential, as spend by dairy co-operatives on R&D is relatively modest. Building on joint initiatives such as the dairy processing technology centre, greater collaboration and partnerships in this sphere will facilitate a move away from commodity based products into value added products such as infant foods, sports nutrition and premium cheeses and butters,” he said.
Mr Keane said the co-operative movement has successfully served rural communities in Ireland over many decades: “However, it is essential that co-operative boards constantly engage with and invest in their members by supporting training and education programmes,” he said.
