ICMSA say Dairy Markets have ‘rebounded’ and that must be reflected in farmer price

AFTER all the negativity around dairy markets, the chairperson of ICMSA’s Dairy Committee said that it is heartening to see a significant bounce in dairy markets in recent weeks and this should end the stream of negative commentary from milk processors and any talk of further reductions in milk price. Chairperson, Noel Murphy, said that dairy markets weakened considerably in the first half of 2023 but, since early September, the market signal had changed notably with a very move upwards in price.

“This can be seen in the last three GDT auctions with successive increases since 5 September of 2.7%, 4.6% and 4.4%.

“The Dutch dairy quotations have followed a similar trend with the industry standard Butter/SMP combination increasing by 4.5 cents per litre since the start of September now returning the equivalent of 37 cents per litre. WMP has increased by 2.6 cents per litre over the same period returning the equivalent of 37.8 cents per litre at the farmgate.

These improvements are hugely significant and had better manifest themselves at the very next opportunity in prices paid to farmer-suppliers”, said Mr Murphy. The ICMSA member noted that milk processors were very quick to cut milk prices in the Q1 and Q2 downturn with very loud negative commentary regarding the direction of milk price.

September has seen a strong rebound in dairy markets and Mr. Murphy said that it is quite clear that any basis for a milk price reduction for September milk is now gone and - at the very minimum - milk prices should remain stable for September.

“We are putting every processor and Co-op on notice: we had better see farmer price rise in conjunction with market movements as quickly as we saw it fall. That increase is urgently required and there’s no case whatsoever for any Co-op to ‘sit’ on those improved returns for a few rounds of price announcements,” Mr Murphy said.