Since I was elected president of ICMSA three years ago, I have consistently voiced my conviction that a ‘bigger picture’ effects farm incomes to at least the same degree as product prices and that we must concentrate more on ensuring that the context —the ‘bigger picture’ — within which we farm and produce food is balanced and does not, as often seems the case, discriminate against the farmers as price-takers.

For the last four years, the Irish Farmers’ Association has played an active part in the lobbying effort to persuade EU institutions to ease some of the burden of superlevy on expanding dairy farmers before quota abolition, in light of the fast-expanding international dairy demand.

The biggest concern for farmers, especially at a time when dairy markets are softening, is the impact on their income of milk price and input cost volatility.

Dairy sector groups continue to lobby Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos for the EU to soften its stance on superlevy fines for the remaining 14 months of the quota era.