IFA President Eddie Downey recently met with and wrote to EU Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan to express his concerns on dairy price pressures.
He asked the Commissioner to have his services undertake an immediate review of dairy intervention prices.
Mr Downey said that the pressure on milk prices has been intensifying in recent weeks, and they have been falling in an increasing number of member states.
“Meanwhile, there has been no account taken of the massive long-term increase in production costs incurred by farmers, and a revaluation of the butter and SMP intervention prices is now well overdue,” he said.
Commenting on the issue, IFA National Dairy Committee Chairman Sean O’Leary added: “The EU Commission has been referring to the intervention regime as the ‘safety net’ – a safety net is meant to catch you before you hit the floor. At a farm gate price equivalent of around 22c/l, current intervention prices simply cannot credibly be described as a ‘safety net’.
“Production costs have increased strongly since 2008, the last (downward) adjustment of the intervention price, I believe an increase of the intervention prices is well overdue.”
