The Carbery Group has become the latest processor to reveal its milk price for May, announcing that it has held its price from April.

The four west Cork co-ops will pay 32.46c/L including VAT (30.8c/L excluding VAT) for May milk supplies, the group has announced.

Carbery is the latest in a series of milk price announcements in recent days.

Prices

On Friday, June 14, Aurivo announced that, following a meeting of the cooperative board, a decision was made to hold its milk price at 30.5c/L including VAT for the month of May.

Markets continue to be supply driven with modest demand growth evident, according to an Aurivo spokesperson.

Butter markets in particular are weaker as stocks replenish. The board will closely monitor market returns and pay the maximum return to members in line with prevailing market conditions, the representative concluded.

Meanwhile, the previous day, Lakeland Dairies announced that a price of 31.28c/L, including VAT, has been agreed for milk supplied in May. The base price has been held from April.

In Northern Ireland, a price of 25.25p/L will be paid for May supplies. Again, the base price has been held.

Commenting on the price, the co-op said: “There continues to be weakness in the European dairy markets driven by the persistently high volumes of product in stock, particularly in the UK. Official European butter prices have hit a four-year low in recent weeks.

“We will continue to closely monitor the market in order to extract the strongest prices for our farmers,” a cooperative spokesperson concluded.