A fair wholesale price for private-label milk is needed as high input costs could threaten shop supply next winter, according to the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA).
The IFA liquid milk chair, Keith O’Boyle said a fair price must be ensured by the new Office for Fairness and Transparency in the Agri-Food Supply Chain which was recently approved by Cabinet.
O’Boyle explained:
“The dominance of private-label milk sales in Ireland has eroded the margin paid back to farmers to such an extent that a regular and consistent supply of milk on our shop shelves cannot be guaranteed.”
He said that producing fresh milk requires farmers to milk their cows all year at significant extra cost. The IFA liquid milk chair added that this is now being compounded by the surge in input prices.
An increasing number of farmers are questioning why they are taking on extra costs and effort which is needed to milk all year around, according to the IFA liquid milk chair.
O’Boyle said liquid milk farmers need a bigger premium. He explained:
“While the price of milk for manufacturing has been going up, this is eating into the extra premium farmers are normally paid for producing fresh milk all year around.”
The IFA liquid milk chair said that, in the meantime, retailers must increase the price of milk and pass the entire differential back to the primary producer.
“Price won’t be a big concern if retailers cannot secure a sufficient supply of fresh milk next winter,” he added.