The Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) has said the gap in the base milk price in Northern Ireland compared to other milk prices in the UK and the EU “is not justified”.
According to Cyril Orr, the UFU dairy committee chair, dairy farmers in Northern Ireland have suffered a “dramatic drop” in milk prices and now seriously lag not just behind the UK dairy industry but also the EU.
The UFU has highlighted that in November 2022 the average milk price in Northern Ireland was 51.93p/L which was close to the EU average of 51.69p/L.
However the union said nearly 12 months later in October 2023 the price was 32.39p/L which represented a drop of almost 20 pence – this compared to the EU average which had fallen by an estimated 12p/L.
In October 2023, the Great Britain (GB) published average milk price was 36.99p/L which was 4.60p/L higher than in Northern Ireland.
“This means that when compared to individual EU member states, Northern Ireland has the second lowest milk price in Europe,” the UFU stated.
According to Orr latest market indications suggest that global dairy commodity prices are more positive at the start of 2024 than they have been over the last 12 months.
GDT Index
Earlier this month the Global Dairy Trade (GDT) price index continued its upward trajectory following the second trading event of 2024.
The index increased by 2.3% to stand at 1,061 following the latest auction on Tuesday, January 16.
It was the fourth consecutive increase for the index.
However, the index is still considerably down on the 1,593 which was recorded in March 2022.
UFU’s dairy committee chair believes that these positive developments in the global industry should now “be reflected in better prices for farmers”.
“Prices are starting to move in the right direction.
“However, there is no escaping the reality that many of our dairy farmers are still delivering milk below the cost of production.
“This is clearly not sustainable, given all the many challenges the industry faces,” said Orr.