Carbery has today (Monday, May 16) confirmed that it will be making a one-off payment to its suppliers on fixed-milk contracts.
In a statement to Agriland, the board of Carbery confirmed the payment of 5c/L to their fixed-milk suppliers.
The payment will be based on the Carbery suppliers’ annual volumes and will be paid this month.
“Less than 5% of Carbery’s milk pool is covered by a fixed-price scheme and the price varies depending on the year that it was fixed,” a spokesperson for the processor added.
Meanwhile, Aurivo has confirmed to Agriland that it is “currently reviewing the fixed milk-price scheme situation and its impact on farm and on customers”.
The company said that it will “continue to pay the maximum price possible from what the current market returns”.
Approximately 4% of Aurivo’s milk pool is in the schemes
Dairygold told Agriland that it currently has three active Fixed Milk Price (FMP) Schemes, under which, suppliers were able to commit a maximum of 10% of their annual volumes.
“The current one-year (2022) scheme is 42c/L,” a Dairygold spokesperson said.
The volume of milk committed to the two earlier schemes is around 4% of Dairygold’s 2022 intake.
“The maximum any supplier will have committed to any of these two schemes is 20% of their annual volume,” they continued
“Dairygold continues to work proactively with milk suppliers on an individual basis to address any cash flow concerns they may experience,” the spokesperson concluded.
North Cork Creameries, which first introduced a fixed milk-price scheme in 2014, previously stated that is “acutely aware of the growing burden of increased input costs for all milk suppliers”.
The co-op said that it is “committed to paying the highest possible milk price in line with market conditions”.
Earlier this year, North Cork made a 2c/L supplementary payment for all milk suppliers, including those on fixed price milk contracts.
It also paid all suppliers 1c/L for milk supplied in 2021 in addition to their February milk cheque in recognition of the “challenging times that currently exist”.
Today’s decision by Carbery follows an announcement last week (Thursday, May 12) by Lakeland Dairies that it is increasing the price paid to farmers on existing fixed milk-price contracts.
In the Republic of Ireland, all fixed milk volumes will receive an 8c/L supplementary payment from April 2022–December 2022 inclusive.
In Northern Ireland the corresponding payment will be 7p/L on all milk in fixed-price schemes for the same months.
Glanbia also confirmed that it agreed to pay a 3c/L Agri-Input Support Payment on all milk supplied in April in response to record farm input costs.