Glanbia Ireland (GI) has confirmed that the closing date for applications for its new support scheme for suppliers in fixed milk-price contracts is this week.

The processor decided to extend the closing date by one week until Friday (April 22).

The initiative was unveiled in late March in response to the significant challenge that some milk suppliers are facing as a result of the high volume of milk they have committed to Fixed Milk-Price Schemes (FMPS)

Glanbia has operated these voluntary schemes for over a decade. The schemes have been used by milk suppliers to address volatility in the dairy markets.

However, as a consequence of recent world events, the processor stated that there is unprecedented volatility in milk pricing, farm input costs and availability.

As previously reported by Agriland, the new Fixed Milk-Price Support Scheme will operate as follows:

“For example, a 750,000L supplier with 75% of their annual supply volume contracted under FMPS will have 40%, or 300,000L eligible for the milk price support scheme,” the processor said.

In this example, the value of milk-price support would be €27,000.

In order to qualify, the supplier will be required to contract the same volume (300,000L) at 38c/L (including VAT) in 2023 and 2024.