The dairy processing sector is continuing production reasonably well at present, with no major disruptions from Covid-19 to date, senior industry figures have confirmed.
Speaking to AgriLand, Conor Mulvihill, director of Dairy Industry Ireland (DII), noted that the announcement of the EU’s Aid to Private Storage (APS) scheme has provided some welcome stability to the dairy market internationally, albeit at a very low level.
“In terms of market sentiment, they have given a little bit of a shot to the markets,” the director said.
In a summary of how the industry is performing at present, Mulvihill said that processing is going relatively well as the sector enters into peak production weeks during May and June.
He noted that prices haven’t gone down to intervention levels – but that commodity prices are very weak.
There’s a lot of work being done on Covid-19 protocols, on testing, on APS and on shipping, trying to get the product that we are manufacturing out – there is still huge disruption at supply chain.
“There are some huge challenges – but we have proven to be very resilient and the work that we’ve been doing since January into February and March is really paying dividends now with things working.
“The dairy supply chain is working and every drop of milk is currently being picked up.
“We are very wary – but at present it’s going well,” Mulvihill concluded.