‘We’ve no choice, we have to act’
MILK suppliers who claim Kerry Group owes millions in milk payments have staged a second protest in a week outside Kerry Group headquarters in Tralee.
A group of farmers assembled again on Prince’s Street yesterday (November 5), as they had done last Wednesday, to express their anger at Kerry Group, in what is the latest development in a row over milk prices that has been running for four years.
The dispute stems from Kerry Group’s commitment earlier this decade to pay its suppliers the leading milk price until 2025.
Suppliers had long claimed prices offered by four West Cork co-ops were not being accurately factored in by Kerry Group in 2015, while Kerry Group argued these co-ops were not a ‘ like-for-like’ comparison as Carbery Group processed milk on behalf of the four co-ops.
In September, an arbitrator decided the West Cork Co-ops should be included in the 2015 comparisons.
However, milk suppliers claim that Kerry Group has “failed to engage constructively” since the decision.
While Kerry Group said the arbitrator’s decision only applies to the 2015 milk price, suppliers argue that the difference in milk price should be applied to the years since.
Jerome Crowley, a spokesperson for the protesting milk suppliers, claimed that roughly 3,200 milk suppliers are owed money by Kerry Group and also claimed that, if the years since 2015 are also factored in, suppliers are owed “between €90million and €110m” collectively.
He explained that yesterday’s demonstration was held to coincide with a Kerry Group PLC meeting taking place in Naas this week.
“We felt it would be appropriate to protest the same day, so the message will be carried to the PLC board,” Mr Crowley said. “We’ll be handing letters into the board tomorrow.
“We have confirmation there is a meeting planned for November 14 involving Kerry Group PLC and Kerry Co-op.
“A previous meeting took place on September 27 but there was no content,” Mr Crowley claimed. “That was really infuriating. Absolutely nothing happened. It was a mutually organised meeting, but there was no documentation or anything transferred.
“It was ticking a box because the arbitrator wanted them to meet within three weeks,” he further claimed. “The most important thing from our point of view is that I don’t think we’d be here if they engaged. I think it will be sorted, in the long run.
“We expect that we are going to have some degree of movement in the negotiations that should be taking place. We hope that will take place in the next couple of days.
Mr Crowley said that last week’s protest was organised hours beforehand. He claimed that, on the night before the protest, a member of “Kerry Group PLC management” told shareholders in Iveragh the that Kerry Group “would shortly be contacting our negotiating team, Kerry Co-op’s Leading Milk Price Committee”.
“We were informed of this, but the Co-op wasn’t actually informed,” Mr Conway claimed.
In a statement to The Kerryman, Frank Hayes of Kerry Group claimed that a review of 2015 milk prices to date
“indicates that there is no adjustment required to the 2015 Kerry milk price payment”.
“The arbitrator decided that the West Cork Co-ops should be considered comparators under the milk-supply contract in 2015 whilst acknowledging they are not milk processors.
“In the meantime, Kerry has embarked on a very comprehensive and very detailed review of 2015 milk prices paid by other processors and the West Cork co-ops, to determine the leading milk price on a likefor-like basis, bearing in mind subsidisation by some co-ops from other sources of income outside of milk trading.
“We have been in continuous contact with Kerry Co-op in relation to this review, and Kerry Agribusiness management have attended multiple Kerry Co-op Advisory meetings over the past number off weeks,” Mr Hayes claimed.
Kerry Co-op will update milk supplier on theh arbitration decision through meetings in Kerry and Limerick this November.