Lakeland Dairies has become the first processor to reveal its milk price for the month of May – revealing an increase for last month’s supplies.
This follows a meeting of the co-op board this week.
In the Republic of Ireland, Lakeland Dairies has increased its base milk price by 1.66c/L to 36c/L, including VAT, for milk at 3.6% fat and 3.3% protein.
This 1.66c/L increase in the base milk price “replaces the unconditional bonus which has been paid successively over several months to date”, a spokesperson for the cooperative said.
In Northern Ireland, Lakeland Dairies has also replaced its unconditional bonus with an increase of 1.2p/L in its base milk price to 29.2p/L.
Lakeland Dairies said that there is currently a reasonable level of stability in the markets for dairy products.
European milk supplies have been restricted due to a prolonged period of colder weather to date and this is serving to maintain a level of balance in supply and demand, the co-op spokesperson said, adding:
“While global dairy prices remain prone to fluctuation they are holding steady for now. Demand for food ingredients is recovering on a post-pandemic basis but this is not yet consistently the case across all markets.
“In the foodservice category, it remains to be seen if there is latent demand from consumers to return in large numbers to the foodservice and quick serve markets, as countries worldwide continue a cautious reopening including ongoing vaccination programmes.
“Lakeland Dairies will continue to monitor the market closely in the coming weeks,” the representative concluded.
In an Agriland article published earlier today, ICMSA Dairy Committee chairman Ger Quain said that his association’s analysis of current dairy prices indicated a price of 36c/L.
Quain said that close study of current market conditions and trends showed that most milk purchasers and co-ops had “held back slightly” on April milk price for their supplier-members.