The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) will host a webinar tomorrow (Wednesday, December 12) on problems and issues that can arise with farm debt and farm mortgages.
The webinar “follows on the success of previous events” and is “in recognition of the ongoing seriousness of the issue”, the farm organisation said.
The event is set to kick off at 8:00p.m tomorrow evening.
The ICMSA explains that the webinar will look at specific instances and situations that farmers may find themselves in.
The webinar will be addressed by insolvency practitioner Gary Digney, from accounting firm PKF-FPM, as well as barrister Keith Farry, who specialises in banking and finance.
Both participants will be on hand to offer their expert opinions on the topic.
The event will be chaired by ICMSA president Pat McCormack. The association says that the emphasis will be on “practical solutions for practical farming problems”.
ICMSA is asking any of its members who might be facing this type of difficulty when it comes to their farm business to join the meeting. The association will send out an invitations via online conferencing platform Zoom.
ICMSA calls for bonus on 2021 milk
In other ICMSA related news, the association has called on dairy processors to consider giving dairy farmers an end-of-year bonus for 2021 supplies.
The newly-elected chair of the ICMSA Dairy Committee, Noel Murphy, noted that there were significant returns from the market in 2021.
Murphy argued that the Ornua PPI (Purchase Price Index) “demonstrated conclusively that milk processors had not always paid the base price in full”.
“Milk processor boards must now look at paying an end-of-year bonus to milk suppliers to reward dairy farmers for their huge contribution and to fully reflect the improved market returns from 2021,” he said.
Murphy argued that a bonus should be paid to “bring the final 2021 milk price up to actual market returns”.