Price will sway 72m-litre milk decision, says IFA National Dairy Committee Chairman
The farmers have applied to take part in the EU’s milk reduction scheme.
“These farmers will of course weigh the pros and cons of going through with the reduction,” said Mr O’Leary, who criticised co-ops for being too conservative in setting their September milk price.
He said co-ops should plan out a price strategy to deliver milk prices of at least 30 c/l by next spring. He said September milk prices are 0.6-1.1c/l behind the 26.6c equivalent of the Ornua dairy index.
* In the recent second phase of the EU’s milk reduction scheme, with only less than 1% of the overall budget still available, 556 farmers in Ireland applied to cut milk production by 6.4m litres.
Ireland had the fourth highest number of applicants, after France with 1,823, Germany with 918, and Poland with 766.
But only a milk delivery reduction of 823,92 litres could be accepted from the Irish farmers, for the three months commencing November 1, with only enough budget left to compensate applicants for 12.5% of the amount for which they applied.
The EU milk reduction scheme is now fully subscribed, with more than 58,000 dairy farmers from 27 EU countries (all except Greece) having signed up to receive EU aid to cut their output in the coming months by more than 1.07m tonnes of milk.
The scheme was announced by Commissioner Phil Hogan in July.
He said last week that Ireland has the highest participation rate among milk producers, in percentage terms, at 24%.
He said the scheme’s success will help the current recovery in the dairy products market.
