Some 190 milk suppliers have signed up to become members of a breakaway group from Kerry Dairy Ireland (Kerry Group), a meeting in Tralee has heard.

This would represent an estimated 95m litres out of Kerry’s 1.15bn litre milk pool, based on average dairy farmer production volumes in Ireland.

Munster Dairy Producer Organisation (MDPO) interim chair James Doyle, told the Irish Farmers Journal that this figure includes existing interest and members following a meeting held in Adare on Thursday 27 June.

He added that it could be some time before the full extent of membership is known, but after all public information meetings conclude the organisation will have a clearer picture.

The Tralee meeting took place on Tuesday 2 July, with 200 farmers in attendance. The final MDPO event ran in Ennis on Wednesday 3 July. All suppliers to Kerry Group currently have individual milk supply contracts with Kerry Group.Doyle said he thinks Kerry should be the group’s first port of call when negotiating a new milk supply contract for members, but other processors have been “making noises”.

Geography

On fears that membership of the producer organisation (PO) might impact existing Kerry milk collection, Doyle pledged that all MDPO members’ milk would be accommodated, regardless of geography.

“The people living in the periphery and outside areas, the only place they will be sure their milk will be collected is through the PO.

“If we negotiate a price and a contract with a processor, it will be for every one of our members – no matter where they are located.

“If they say, ‘We won’t collect those people.’ Fine, they won’t get our milk.

“They can’t get that guarantee from anyone else, but they will get it from MDPO.

“We don’t care where they’re situated – west Kerry, south Kerry, west Clare – we’ll get it collected,” he added.