The Irish Dairy Board is an organisation always worth listening to when discussing prospects for milk prices.

Financial results recently from the two big dairy co-ops in Ireland — Dairygold and the Irish Dairy Board — reflect renewed monetary muscle within the co-operative movement.

The Irish Dairy Board has secured a five-year, €420m syndicated bank facility with AIB, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, HSBC, Rabobank, and Ulster Bank.

In terms of my priorities for the next four years as IFA national dairy committee chairman-elect, I will be looking to ensure farmers are paid the best possible milk price.

The Irish Dairy Board (IDB) has acquired a 75% interest in Al Wazeen Trading as part of a €20m investment in Saudi Arabia.

The Irish Dairy Board has predicted record sales exceeding €280m in 2013 for Kerrygold butter in Germany, where it celebrated 40 years of trading yesterday.

Tipperary Co-op is to pay its suppliers a 3c per litre bonus on February milk from 2014 onwards in a bid to shift some production out of the peak summer months.

The IFA has given a guarded welcome to the election of Aurivo Co-op chief executive Aaron Forde as the incoming chairman of the Irish Dairy Board, following the resignation of Vincent Buckley.

Iconic dairy brand Kerrygold is now the bestselling butter in Germany and the leading imported butter product in the US.

New products as well as overseas acquisitions, capital investments, and ambitious plans for post-2015 growth in emerging markets, form the back story to the €2bn revenue reported in the Irish Dairy Board’s (IDB) annual results for 2012.

Tesco stores in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary will stock Irish packet butter as part of the chain’s new €20m supply contract with the Irish Dairy Board.

French consumers and food industry buyers are increasingly interested in quality Irish produce, say key exhibitors attending the Sial food fair in Paris.

It’s 50 years since Kerrygold was first exported — the ultimate success story of an industry once driven by the Cork Butter Market, says Robert Hume

The Irish Dairy Board’s finance director Cathal Fitzgerald intends to leave the organisation by the end of the year.

Farmers are bitterly disappointed with Irish dairy co-ops who have failed to increase their August milk price to suppliers despite upward trends at global auctions, says the IFA national dairy committee chairman Kevin Kiersey.

Farmers and other primary producers have passed the halfway mark towards meeting their Food Harvest 2020 targets.

The Irish Dairy Board (IDB) has bought the Cheese Warehouse, a British-based cheese ingredients company.

Specialist financial services sector journal Finance Dublin has selected Irish Dairy Board’s innovative new €190m corporate loan facility among its prestigious award winners for 2012.

The Irish Dairy Board has agreed to sell its Belgian continental cheese-packing operation, IDB Belgium, to the Dutch agri co-op Royal FrieslandCampina.

IFA president John Bryan has called on the co-ops to hold May milk prices to protect dairy farmers, already hit by disastrous weather this month.

Emerging food companies are being urged to take advantage of the advanced food science skills of Teagasc and other third-level research hubs to road test and develop their products.

Teagasc has launched a five-tier strategy to support new product development in the Irish agri-food sector, and to avoid Irish-generated patents migrating overseas.

Innovative products and an equally unique €350m loan facility have set the Irish Dairy Board on a solid footing for anticipated post-milk quota growth.

The Irish Dairy Board has launched Kerrygold UHT Milk in the Chinese market as part of a plan to extend the Kerrygold product range in the growing market.

The Irish Dairy Board (IDB) has appointed Fergal McGarry as global marketing and innovation director as part of its post-milk quota export strategy.

The Irish Dairy Board (IDB) has secured an extra €100m in committed loans as banks effectively backed the expansion ambitions of the dairy sector.

PRELIMINARY sales data indicates that 2011 is likely to have been a record year for the Kerrygold brand in the US with year-on-year sales up 17% on a constant currency basis.

BORD BIA and the Irish Dairy Board (IDB) can work in tandem to develop new overseas markets for Irish milk exports, according to Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney.

THE Irish Dairy Board (IDB) yesterday opened the new Adams Food Ingredients (AFI) manufacturing centre in Leek, Staffordshire, England.

KERRYGOLD milk powder products may record a 4,000 tonnes sales boost with the opening yesterday of an Irish Dairy Board (IDB) premises in Oran, Algeria.

TIPPERARY dairy and beef farmer Jackie Cahill has already chaired his first meeting of the National Dairy Council, having been formally elected chairman earlier this week.

EARLIER this week I shared a platform with the chairman of Fonterra, which is effectively the entire New Zealand dairy industry.