Dairygold Phased Superlevy Payment Scheme a Welcome Move – O’leary

IFA National Dairy Committee Chairman Sean O’Leary today (Friday) complimented Dairygold on their phased superlevy payment scheme, which will allow their suppliers to stagger their superlevy payment over the following 2 years’ peak periods. He said this was a positive example other co-ops, perhaps in co-operation with financial institutions, should emulate to better support their suppliers through the challenging transition out of quotas.

“The Dairygold scheme is an excellent example of constructive innovative thinking to assist farmers. Now that markets and milk prices have weakened, it is vital that the pressures farmers will face on their cash flow over the coming 18 to 24 months be properly appreciated by co-ops and banks alike,” he said.

“I would urge banks to provide farmers with equally innovative financial products for cash flow and for investment, which recognise fully the volatility of farmers’ incomes and gives them the greatest possible flexibility on terms and repayment requirements when margins are down,” he said.

“I would also urge farmers to remember that, whether or not their co-op and their banks provide an instrument to help them deal with superlevy and short term cash flow problems, they will still have to pay in full any fine arising from exceeding their quota. While this is the final year of the quota regime, it still remains vital that they would properly plan for this,” he concluded.