Phil Hogan’s next change target: better credit for EU farmers

Over the last eight years, wholesale skim milk powder prices in the EU varied from a peak month of over €3,800 per tonne in 2007 to a low of less than €1,650 in 2009, then rose to €3,300 in early 2014, but fell to under 1,700 in mid-2015.

The Irish dairy industry has done well to survive these extremes of volatility.

Every success our dairy industry has achieved has been against the odds, with only a small home market to support this 90% export business. At the end of the dairy production chain, the Irish dairy farmer is particularly vulnerable to the effect of price movements further up the chain, on his or her farm earnings and cash flow.