Irish milk producers gain from losses in the valleys
Irish milk producers gain from losses in the valleys
By FW reporters
WELSH milk producers are leaving the industry at an alarming rate, according to figures released by the Farmers Union of Wales.
The unions milk committee was told the net loss of milk quota is running at 10.3m litres/year and the number of producers is predicted to fall from 4900 in 1995 to around 3000 by 2005.
While some producers were buying English quota to expand, more were quitting – and falling milk prices could accelerate the exodus.
Committee chairman Robert Voyle criticised the governments policy of not allowing the creation of the very large co-operatives seen in the rest of Europe. The result was competition between co-ops for market share, which benefited processors and supermarkets.
While producers margins were being squeezed, others in the dairy industry were able to maintain their profits, he insists.
By contrast, Northern Ireland is estimated to have gained at least 70m litres on the year to March 2001 from Wales and England and a total of 500m litres since 1984.
"Producers have been running to standstill. They have had to expand to stay financially viable," says a spokesman for the Ulster Farmers Union.
But with markets restricted, Northern Irelands dairy farmers rely heavily on commodity exports and have been particularly hard hit by the collapse in world prices.
Ulster-based United Dairy Farmers is paying just under 18p a standard litre ex-farm. Further gloom comes with news that auction prices have crashed – a sale of 16m litres on Jan 15 fetched just 16.35p/litre, 30% down on levels seen one year ago.
Union president Douglas Rowe visited Brussels this week along with processor and co-op representatives to push for an increase in export refunds, particularly for whole milk powder, to help offset the fall in world market prices.
"Unless this happens, we will have no choice but to convert milk into skimmed milk powder for intervention when it opens in March," said the UFU.
• Our Milk Price Review for December reflects cuts made by Milk Link (by 0.5p/litre, taking our standard litre price to 19.39p/litre for every-other-day-collection) and Southern Co-op (by 0.8p/litre for EODC to 19.19p for our standard litre). This puts the firm at the bottom of Decembers table when seasonality adjustments are included.
But it will not stay there for long. Several milk companies have cut farmgate prices for January milk (Business, Jan 11 and 18) and further announcements cannot be ruled out.