The value of stock market-listed Glanbia dropped by €550m as its shares plunged by almost 16% after the Irish international food giant warned its sales outlook for the rest of the year had in part been ensnared by the global trade wars.

Glanbia has published its financial results which have signalled a 'disappointing first half' of the year.

Glanbia has announced that it will pay its member milk suppliers 30.5 cent per litre including VAT for May manufacturing milk supplies at 3.6% butterfat and 3.3% protein.

Whether a visionary strategy or a happy accident that people are more health and food conscious than ever before, Glanbia is reaping the benefits of a turn in consumer trends in the past decade.

Shares in foods giant Glanbia surged 13% as it eyes €400m in further acquisitions on the back of better than anticipated results for 2018.

Food group Glanbia has reported greater-than-expected growth of 9% in adjusted earnings per share to 91 cent in its results for 2018.

Glanbia Ireland is to create 80 new jobs after it announced plans to build a new €140m cheese manufacturing facility in Belview, Co Kilkenny.

Shares in Glanbia fell over 8%, bringing their losses to 12% in the last year, despite the foods firm saying it is on course to secure its earnings goal and pointing to a less threatening foreign currency “headwind” from its US operations.

Glanbia has reached agreement to buy well-known weight control food brand SlimFast for $350m (€302m).

Glanbia shares closed lower after the food firm, whose operations span Europe and the US, posted a drop in earnings at the half-year stage.

Just how tough the milk business can be has been described by Glanbia Ireland CEO Jim Bergin.

Glanbia’s US operation were among the main winners of the recent World Championship Cheese Contest awards in Wisconsin, USA.

Tuesday’s GlobalDairyTrade auction heralded a return to severe global dairy market volatility, with prices at the benchmark auction rising at their fastest pace in seven months, two weeks after they fell to a 14-month low, writes Stephen Cadogan.

European agri co-ops representative body Cogeca has presented its 2017 Business Model Innovation Award to Glanbia for introducing the Glanbia MilkFlex Fund.

Dairy farmers have praised Glanbia Ireland for “signposting the road that other milk processors must follow”.

Glanbia said the popularity of health and sports nutrition products such as whey protein powder will fuel growth in the coming months, as its global cheese production helped raise its revenues almost 10% to over €2bn in its first half results.

The boss of Glanbia has called for “as long a transition period as possible” following Brexit if current trading conditions between Ireland and the UK cannot be maintained.

Farmers have given a cautious welcome to Glanbia’s plan to sell 60% of its Irish dairy business to Glanbia Co-op, creating a new Glanbia Ireland joint venture in a deal worth €112m.

Shares in Glanbia rose about 1.5% after the food firm said it was paying €181m to buy two more international firms.

Two separate deals yesterday sparked foods shares into life, as Glanbia eyed a big cheese expansion in the US, while Tesco unexpectedly unveiled a €4.3bn purchase of restaurants supplier Booker.

Two of Ireland’s largest food companies — Kerry Group and Glanbia — have seen an analyst upgrade on the back of strong quarterly updates showing they are weathering currency headwinds.

More and more companies are benefiting from lower borrowing costs by issuing bonds.

Glanbia Co-op has launched a €55m scheme that will provide interest-free cash to its suppliers when milk and grain prices are weak.

Revenue at global nutrition group Glanbia fell 2.5% in the opening quarter of the year as dwindling milk prices hit the company’s ingredients sector.

An international milk price comparison shows Dairygold Co-op paying more for milk in February than Glanbia or Kerry, in contrast to Irish milk price leagues which show it paying a lower price.

IFA national dairy chairman Sean O’Leary says Glanbia has shortchanged farmers by seeking to keep the cost of milk well below that paid for by other co-ops.

The recent announcement by Glanbia of the rollout of flexible, competitively priced loans to dairy farmers, entitled the “MilkFlex Fund”, could be a game changer for Irish farmers.

Talk of milk supply control returning in the EU didn’t boost the GlobalDairyTrade commodity auction on Tuesday, with a 2.9% slump to a seven-month low, defying signals from futures markets which had predicted a positive outcome.

Data from the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) shows that there has been a huge increase in milk recording since 2005, the largest annual increase of 11% being in 2011.

Glanbia will continue to expand via organic growth and acquisitions, managing director of the food group Siobhán Talbot said.