This article is from page 67 of the 2007-06-12 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 67 JPG
THE IFA has launched a blistering attack on Kerry Co-Op, accusing the company of ‘pocketing’ the money generated by the upsurge in the mar- ket and not passing anything on to JE Du nN ace
The IFA’s National Dairy Com- mittee Chairman, Richard Kennedy, commented on Wednesday that the May 1.4c/l (6.3c/gal) milk price in- crease by Kerry fell 2c/l (9c/gal) short of the 30c/l +VAT benchmark which co-ops “can easily afford” in the present record dairy market re- aebw ete
Kennedy accused the board of Ker- ry of ‘letting down’ its suppliers by following the deliberately weak tone set by Glanbia and failing to pass
back a much higher price increase. He accused both Kerry and Glan- bia of corporate greed in pocketing most of the market upswing. “Sup- pliers demand their fair share of the massive market improvements. It 1s absolutely legitimate after five years of constant price cuts in view of the huge surge in markets,” he said.
“Yet, so far, most dairy farmers have received less than 20 per cent of the historical return increases of the last 12 months. There are already sions of real anger that they are be- ing cheated of fully justified price increases.
Kerry and Glanbia have now in- creased their milk price by a total of 3.6c/l (16c/gal) and 4c/l (18c/gal) respectively, but both have benefited from IDB SMP/butter increases of
three times as much, at 12.7c/l (58c/ gal), as well as significant equivalent increases on returns for most of their product mix.
“Dairy farmers must not be hood- winked by their first milk price in- creases in over five years — 30c/I is the price they received over 10 years ago. They should demand from their board members a far better milk price than Kerry and Glanbia’s in- crease,’ he continued.
“Farmers cannot afford to leave money on the table in this market up- swing when they have taken the full hit in milk price cuts over the past five years.
“The IFA has called for a 30c/I +VAT May milk price, because it is economically fully justifiable, with current market returns, for co-ops to
pay this price and still improve their own margins. Indeed, markets are continuing to strengthen, and further milk price increases will be justified TbOMMO elem exoye sn batcanneleyelne tne