Ornua’s financial results for 2018 – some €2.1 billion in turnover and €40.4 million in profit – are “positive and a testament to the underlying quality of Irish dairy products”, according to the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA).
Commenting on the results, announced today, Wednesday, April 3, president of the ICMSA Pat McCormack said that the reputation of Irish milk is “built upon the standards achieved and being driven forward by the farmers themselves”.
“The ICMSA’s position is very clear: Milk price needs to start moving upwards and the objective of Ornua must be to deliver a milk price that exceeds the growth in the cost of production.”
These, he said, are “noticeably less” than the Ornua index on which they are supposed to be based.
“This is what will grab the farmers’ attention: The Ornua Purchase Price Index represents the prices that the member co-ops of Ornua have received for their supplies into the co-op – but those individual co-ops are currently paying the farmer-suppliers a milk price that is less than the price that the co-ops themselves have been paid by Ornua.”
This, McCormack said, is without even mentioning the bonus that was paid to the individual co-ops by Ornua.
It is quite clear from the Ornua results that markets returned well in 2018 for processors in what was an extremely difficult year for farmers.
“And it is just as clear that milk prices must at least move up to the Ornua PPI for when the March milk prices are declared,” McCormack concluded.