ICMSA say latest milk price cuts opening up “alarming disparities in payments”

Following the recent series of September price cut announcements by Co-ops and processors right across the country, the Chairperson of ICMSA’s Dairy Committee, Noel Murphy, has questioned the disparity between prices now applicable across the country and said the differences now evident are alarming.

“We are not naive and don’t expect Co-ops to beat the market. This current phase and market is putting suppliers under real pressure and we have to deal with that – what we have much more trouble dealing with is the frankly very alarming differences in prices now being paid by the Co-ops and we think that this is becoming even more of an issue. We now have almost a 5cpl litre difference in base price for September milk supplied from top to bottom and this is a staggering difference for farmers delivering essentially the same product but getting paid by different processors.  We estimate over €2000 of a difference in returns if suppling 45,000 litres in September. This is very difficult to take or rationalise where you have neighbouring farmers experiencing that kind of differential for the same amount of milk supplied. These are alarming disparities in payments”, said Mr. Murphy.

Mr. Murphy also repeated his previous scepticism on the question of ‘Forward’ pricing.

“What happened the forward contracts made some months ago that should be insulating farmers from the most recent cuts in price? They are constantly invoked when markets are rising, and farmers are told that contracts made at lower prices must be fulfilled at those lower prices. Farmers are told that it takes three to four months for rising markets to work through to farmer price precisely because of this ‘Forward Pricing’.  The same principle should obviously work when the markets are falling, and contracts made at higher previous prices should be insulating the farmer-suppliers against the most recent cuts. That’s not what we see; we see market falls manifesting immediately in lower prices for the farmer-suppliers and very little then about ‘Forward Pricing’”, said Mr Murphy.

Concluding, Mr Murphy noted that to be a dairy farmer in 2025 was to be expected to be able to deal with this kind of unmanageable volatility and be able to see out these times of price drop.

“What’s harder is to look at neighbouring farmers – literally often down the road – getting higher base prices and higher milk cheques for the same volume with the same constituents and know that this was a decision or competence of his or her Co-op over yours.”

Ends        22 October 2025

Noel Murphy, 086-3815575

Chairperson, ICMSA Dairy Committee

Or

Cathal MacCarthy, 087-6168758

ICMSA Press Office