Glanbia has announced that it is to hold its milk price for April and pay its member suppliers 24c/L including VAT for April manufacturing milk supplies.
A spokesperson for the co-op said that this price is inclusive of a 2c/L Glanbia Co Operative Society support payment to its members.
Glanbia Ingredients Ireland (GII) has held the April price at 22c/L including VAT for manufacturing milk at 3.6% fat and 3.3% protein.
The Board of Glanbia Co-operative Society has decided to pay members a support payment of 2.0c/L (including VAT) for April manufacturing and liquid milk supplies.
Last month, GII set a March market price of 22c/L including VAT for manufacturing milk at 3.6% fat and 3.3% protein.
This was a reduction of 2c/L on the February market price and according to Glanbia it reflects the weakness in dairy market returns.
Henry Corbally, Chairman of Glanbia, said that in making this decision on April price, the Board and management of the co-op was acutely conscious of the challenging weather faced by suppliers, which led to lower than expected milk supply and constituents.
The reality is that market returns are not currently at 24c/L. However, Glanbia appreciates the income challenge and is doing all it can to support our farmer suppliers, through both GII and the Society.
“We continue to consider other mechanisms to add to our range of industry leading Volatility Tools, such as Fixed Milk Price Schemes and MilkFlex.”
Corbally also confirmed that the Co-operative Society will pay a Special Dividend (Share Interest) worth a total of €10.1m to all Society shareholders next week.
For the average milk supplier shareholder to the co-op, the Special Dividend of 25c/share will be worth over €1,000.
This is in addition to the Ordinary Dividend (Share Interest) of 10c/share that will be proposed at the Society’s Annual General Meeting today, May 5.