Oct 14th, 2009

ICMSA - WE TOOK ALL THE PAIN - WE ARE NOW ENTITLED TO THE GAIN - JACKIE CAHILL

Dairy farmers from ten Eastern counties will demonstrate outside Glanbia Headquarters (Kilkenny City) tomorrow Thursday at 11.30 a.m. highlighting the failure of Glanbia to increase the price paid to farmers in line with increased market returns.

Jackie Cahill, the ICMSA President said: “We are at long last getting significant and real increases from the market place. This is shown by the retrospective increase from the Irish Dairy Board equivalent to 2.1 cent per litre for product sold by processors during September. Our demand to Glanbia and other Co-ops is simple. Co-ops rapidly passed on the cuts to dairy farmers which were the worst we ever experienced. We now want the Co-ops to act with the same sense of urgency and pass on all of the increases coming from the market without any delay”.

Mr. Cahill complimented the Co-ops who had already taken action on this front with a number of Co-ops passing on a substantial part of the IDB increase. However, in times like this we actually look to Glanbia, the biggest milk processor in Ireland with a strong product mix, to firmly set the pace that the bottom of the dairy crisis has been reached and that we are on the way back. I have written to the Chairman of Glanbia formally proposing that his Board would make a retrospective increase of 2.1 cent per litre to the price which they have already set for September milk.

In concluding, Mr. Cahill said that he wished to put all Co-ops on notice that dairy farmers have a legitimate expectation and are entitled to not alone the current 2.1 cent increase coming from the IDB with effect from first week of September but to all further increases which hopefully will materialise over the coming months.

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