A boycott of the Dairygold retail and agribusiness trading sectors has been proposed at the Dairygold Concerned Shareholders group meeting in the Firgrove Hotel in Mitchelstown on Wednesday night.

Speakers on the night expressed their frustration at the recent milk price cuts announced by Dairygold, with 1c/l coming off the May milk price.

The board and management of the co-op came in for sharp criticism, with claims that the co-op is paying the lowest price in the country for May milk.

The meeting was chaired by two of the five committee members, Eoin Bourke and Nigel Sweetnam, with apologies from fellow committee members Niall Twomey and Ned O’Keeffe who were unable to attend, but there was no apologies from Tadhg McSweeney.

Sweetnam called for further rationalisation at Dairygold, with numerous comparisons made to the Carbery group processing model during the course of the meeting.

Duplication

“Carbery have four co-ops supplying milk to one site, whereas we [Dairygold] have one co-op supplying milk to four sites - think of all the duplication of resources and inefficiencies,” he said.

In early May, Dairygold’s solicitors sent letters to each of the five committee members alleging defamation against board members, senior management and other staff.

The committee members said at the meeting on Wednesday they were “not overly bothered” by the legal letters, which they described as “a bit silly really” and vowed to continue.

The meeting also heard from James Doyle from the Munster Dairy Producer Organisation, who explained the background to setting up the producer organisation.

There was approximately 130 people at the meeting, with some discussion about joining forces with Munster Dairy Producer Organisation.

Speaking from the floor, a member of the Dairygold regional committee said that the committee is being warned about further price cuts over the coming months.

After this was said, it was proposed that a protest should be organised outside the Dairygold headquarters before the June milk price is set.

Other speakers from the floor said a boycott of trading with both Dairygold and Munster Bovine would be necessary for the co-op “to act on our concerns”.

Criticism

Criticism was made of the representative structure within Dairygold, in that committee members have to meet trading requirements with Dairygold in order to be eligible to stand for election.

Dairygold committee members must do 25% of their trading with the co-op on entry to a committee, rising to 50% at the end of the first year and then 75% for second and subsequent years.

The fact that the board members are not directly elected by shareholders also came in for criticism.

Other proposals on the night included a vote of no confidence in the board, orchestrated termination of milk supply agreements and a social media campaign.

Concluding, Eoin Bourke said the concerned shareholder committee will draft a letter outlining the proposals from the meeting and then communicate to its membership via the Whatsapp group on the next steps.