IFA National Dairy Committee Chairman Kevin Kiersey today (Monday) said it was important that the positive meetings recently held by IFA with co-op board members, where a general consensus had emerged as to the desirability of consolidating further milk collection, processing, R&D and marketing, would be followed up by determined action. 

 

The forum created by IFA had provided a unique opportunity for co-op board members to link up with fellow-directors from other co-ops to share their views and concerns on this vital topic. Mr Kiersey said IFA’s purpose in creating this forum is to ensure that the drive towards industry consolidation does not lose momentum and that complacency does not set in as milk prices recover. He encouraged board members to rapidly progress those discussions to action.  

 

Mr Kiersey said further regional meetings would be held in August, and by the end of the summer, all co-op board members will have been invited to participate in this IFA forum.

 

 “We have found so far that board members were very positively disposed towards greater co-operation with neighbouring co-ops, and towards consolidation and rationalisation generally. However, we have also found that issues of trust needed to be surmounted in some instances, and that local considerations must not stand in the way of the best interest of shareholder suppliers,” he said.

 

“It was also clear from the meetings and from recent correspondence with co-ops that a significant amount of co-operation is already taking place, which the Association is attempting to quantify,” he said. 

 

“However, farmers on the ground are becoming impatient with the apparent lack of progress. On the eve of quota abolition, and with Government targeting a 50% expansion in milk production by 2020, co-ops now need to go beyond limited collection and co-processing arrangements. They must take consolidation to the next stage and act on the decisions which will optimise the use of scarce farmer resources for the benefit of the entire sector,” he said

 

Representatives of dairy discussion groups, who have recently weighed into the debate, have been invited to address each meeting.