This article is from page 42 of the 2007-09-04 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 42 JPG
POOR grain price offers by Glan- bia have resulted in IFA President Padraig Walshe seeking a meeting with Glanbia Chief Executive John Maloney to discuss the “derisory”’ sums.
The IFA President said, “Glan- bia’s on account prices of €170/t for barley, €180/t for wheat and €185/t for oats (at 20 per cent moisture ex- clusive of vat) are derisory and this move is clearly designed to under-
mine the market for green grain by €15 to €20/t.”
Mr Walshe said, “It is clear that the timing of the announcement by Glan- bia and a number of other co-ops 1s designed to dampen farmer expecta- tions at a time when competition for green grain has intensified.”
“Glanbia’s offer is all the more ri- diculous considering that their own managers are being authorised to compete for grain and do deals far in excess of their current price offer. In the last few days, up to €190/t and
€210/t has been paid for green bar- ley and wheat respectively collected ex farm (at 20 per cent moisture, ex- clusive of vat), as the main harvest gets into full swing.”
“It is clear that Glanbia is now try- ing to recoup a drying and handling margin of over €50 per tonne from wheat based on current market val- ues, a 66 per cent increase on last harvest. This is totally unacceptable. Based on current import values, the benchmark off which Glanbia sup- posedly works, green wheat off the
combine is worth €200/t and green barley €185/t (at 20 per cent mois- ture, exclusive of vat).”
“Where farmers cannot achieve a minimum price of €185/t for green barley and €200/t for green wheat off the combine, they should now consider a number of other options. They can tip and auction the grain, retain ownership of the grain and do a deal on drying and storage, which is available from €14/t (excluding weight loss), or trade the grain direct farm to farm,” he added.