Ornua’s Purchase Price Index (PPI) for the month of July has remained relatively static compared to the previous month, recording an increase of just 0.1 percentage points.

The PPI for the seventh month of the year equates to 110.1%; this is the third consecutive increase reported in Ornua’s PPI since April.

An increase of 1.8 percentage points was recorded for May – representing the first increase in the PPI this year. Last month an increase of 3.2 percentage points was noted for the month of June.

Earlier in 2017, the PPI had remained relatively static; it began the year at 105.4%, before decreasing to 105% in April. Ornua’s PPI has currently reached its highest level since the autumn of 2014.

[yes-app]

[/yes-app]

‘Inexplicable gap’ between Irish milk price and EU average

Earlier this week, the Chairperson of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association’s (ICMSA’s) Dairy Committee, Gerald Quain, claimed that dairy farmers are fully justified in their demand for a further increase in the July milk price.

Quain rejected, what he described as the “carefully cultivated notion”, that the Irish milk price has risen to its correct level and that the gap or “lag” identified between our milk price and that of mainland EU states has been completely closed.

The chairman said that this gap still existed – and no logical explanation could account for it.

He added that his organisation would therefore be continuing to lobby for increases in the milk price received by farmers based on ongoing improved market returns.