Glanbia Co-op has announced a new monthly payment for milk-supplying members, along with details of its 2020 Trading Bonus Scheme.

In 2020, milk supplier members of Glanbia Co-op will receive a 0.4c/L payment each month on all milk supplied as their ‘Share of Glanbia Ireland Profit’. This payment to members will be adjusted to reflect the actual constituents of the milk delivered.

Members will also have an opportunity to participate in the 2020 Trading Bonus Scheme, which is aimed at “rewarding farmer members of the co-op for purchases made from Glanbia Ireland and its subsidiaries”.

For milk suppliers of the co-op, the 2020 trading bonus is potentially worth up to 0.4c/L on all milk delivered in 2020, Glanbia said. For grain growers, a trading bonus of up to €10/t of grain supplied is available for 2020.

According to a Glanbia statement, the trading bonus is worth up to €2,000 to a 500,000L supplier spending over 8c/L with Glanbia Ireland this year. All qualifying 2020 purchases made from Glanbia Ireland will be included in the calculation (purchases made through purchasing groups count at 50% for 2020).

At the end of 2020, the total spend will be divided by the total litres of milk delivered, to generate a cent per litre input spend for each member. The applicable trading bonus will be paid in February 2021.

Feed Bonus

Beef, sheep and pig farmer customers of Glanbia Ireland that are Glanbia Co-op members will also qualify for a feed bonus on their purchases.

For non-milk suppliers, the 2020 Feed Trading Bonus will be €10/t of beef, dairy and sheep feed products purchased from Glanbia Ireland. There is also €3/t available to qualifying co-op members on purchases of pig feed and straights.

Eligibility for feed bonus payments is confined to non-milk suppliers in 2020 (all feed purchases continue to count towards a milk supplier’s total spend for the milk supplier trading bonus).

Member admission criteria

In another development, Glanbia has approved a series of changes to the criteria for admission of new members to the society.

According to Glanbia Co-op chairperson Martin Keane, the purpose of the changes are to: “Encourage greater co-op involvement among the ‘next generation’ of farmers [and to] ensure that membership admission continues to be confined to persons ‘actively farming’.”

Glanbia says the rules have been “simplified to aid access”, with a requirement of 1,000 shares set for all new members. Previously, the shareholding was set at 2,000 shares, or one share per 200L of milk.

“The minimum shareholding required to become a member of the Glanbia representative structure has also been reduced to 1,000 shares. This makes committee membership more accessible to a greater number of ‘A1’ members,” Keane explained.

“The board are keen to ensure there is a clear path for young, active farmers to join Glanbia Co-op and also to consider becoming involved in the representative structure of the co-op,” he concluded.