IFA Holds First Ever Liquid Milk Forum
The first ever IFA Liquid Milk Forum “Securing Fresh Milk Supplies”, to be held in Dublin next week, will challenge retailers, dairies, industry organisations, government officials and politicians to help sketch a pathway to sustain viable locally produced, high quality fresh milk for Irish consumers.
The event will be opened by IFA President Eddie Downey, chaired by Farmers’ Journal Deputy Editor Pat O’Keeffe, and addressed by NMA’s Dr Muiris O’Ceidigh; Teagasc’s Dr Joe Patton; Aurivo’s Eoghan Sweeney; Tesco’s Kern Kinnear and IFA’s Teddy Cashman.
IFA National Liquid Milk Committee Chairman Teddy Cashman said: “Few may realise that, despite the great enthusiasm there is in the export oriented dairy sector for the post quota era, the specialist year-round producers who produce fresh milk for Irish consumers are genuinely concerned about their future viability”.
“Liquid milk was once a viable part of a dairy processor’s product mix in a seasonal industry which remunerated farmers fairly for the high costs of year-round production. It has now become challenging from the point of view of profitability at processor level, and the pricing systems used to remunerate farmers fail to cover adequately the real cost of their year-round or winter specialisation. Most liquid milk producers have been forced into unsustainable cross-subsidisation of liquid with creamery milk on their farms,” he said.
“Retailers have increased their control by prioritising the development of their lower margin private labels over local dairies’ brands. Meanwhile, dairies have sought to protect or expand market share by undercutting each other, and the overall returns to dairies have diminished dramatically”.
“The IFA Liquid Milk Forum will, for the first time, gather all stakeholders to identify and quantify the economic issues facing the sector. My hope is that it will help assess the challenges to the availability of high quality local milk on supermarket shelves, and find a way forward to secure the long term future of the fresh milk supplies Irish consumers clearly value,” he concluded.
The event is by invitation only.
