The board of Lakeland Dairies has warned that dairy markets have remained “uncertain” over the past month, as it confirmed its price for milk supplied in June.
Lakeland will pay a price of 37.35c/L for milk at 3.6% butterfat and 3.3% protein in the Republic of Ireland.
This price is unchanged from the May price.
In Northern Ireland, Lakeland Dairies has also held the base price of milk for June at 30p/L.
Lakeland Diaries
But the co-op, which processes in the region of 1.8 billion litres of milk annually, has again warned that demand for products is “subdued”.
In a statement, the Co. Cavan-headquartered co-op said that milk production in many of the main dairy regions remains up on last year, but the rate of growth has slowed.
“This is resulting in the supply/demand dynamic remaining out of line which is contributing to this market uncertainty.
“Lakeland Dairies continues to closely monitor the markets in order to return the best possible milk price our 3,200 farm families,” it said.
Global Dairy Trade price index
Meanwhile, based on the results from the latest auction, the Global Dairy Trade (GDT) price index dropped by 3.3%.
The price index now stands at 969, a level last seen in November 2020.
Following the previous auction on June 20, the index remained unchanged from the preceding event on June 6, at 1,002.
The latest auction involved 140 bidders and the average price for products sold was $3,334/MT.
In total, 24,837 MT of produce was sold over 14 bidding rounds lasting just over two hours in total,
All of the dairy products offered for sale during the trading event saw decreases in average price.
Protest
In a separate development, up to 100 Kerry Group milk suppliers staged a protest outside the company’s headquarters in Tralee, Co. Kerry today (Tuesday, July 11).
The farmers are demanding that Kerry Group brings its milk price into line with other processors.
They claim that they have been paid 3.7c/L less than suppliers of neighbouring processor, Dairygold, for all milk supplied in the first five months of 2023.