Irish produce more milk, Brits less

Irish milk supplies for the month of March amounted to 745.24 tonnes of milk, approximately 2,1% more than last year. The supply is also higher compared to the 5-year average, with an increase of around 10,5%.

The milk price has had a significant increase due to the corona crisis. According to the Irish Farmers Association (IFA), all co-operatives should re-evaluate their profit margins and expectations, and the organization is advising all dairy farmers to do the same.

Tim Cullinan, head of the National Dairy Committee meeting, said: "It is clear that dairy farmers will not accept further cuts while co-operatives have the opportunity to reduce their costs. Thom Phelan, chairman of IFA National Dairy Committee, also believes co-operatives should further reduce costs “All cooperatives must make deep cuts to their cost structure to maintain milk prices for April.”

However, milk processor Glanbia has already announced the first price reduction for milk delivered in April. Martin Keane, chairman of Glanbia: “The dairy market is still affected by the corona crisis and the current return from our product range unfortunately requires an adjustment in the milk price.”
 

Milk supply United Kingdom
UK dairy farmers produced 1,303 million tonnes of milk in March. This is a decrease of almost 2% compared to the milk supply last year. With the lower milk collection, the level is just below the 0,6-year average at 5%.

The dairy sector in the United Kingdom is also having a hard time. Dairy farmers have been forced to flush out milk and are faced with milk price cuts. From May onwards, a further reduction in milk prices is expected at various milk processors. 

Arla, the country's largest milk processor, announced a milk price reduction in April. The milk price has fallen by 1 cent from May 1. Milk giant Muller, on the other hand, has announced that it will not lower the milk price and will keep it stable.