A coherent long-term strategy for the Irish dairy industry is needed to rebuild farmer confidence, both the ICMSA and Dairy Industry Ireland (DII) have claimed.

The comments from both organisations follow confirmation that milk supplies are continuing to contract, albeit at a slower pace than earlier in the year.

Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures published last week showed that milk intakes for June were 13m litres back on June 2023 levels, and 243m litres lower for the first six months of the year.

This is the second year in succession that overall milk intakes have fallen significantly. With overall milk production likely to drop to around 8.2bn litres this year, the collapse in supplies since 2022 is set to top 600m litres.

ICMSA’s dairy chair, Noel Murphy, said that the latest CSO data all pointed to “a fundamental incoherence” in the direction of dairy policy.

“There’s no sense among farmers that the Irish dairy sector is operating to a plan,” he said.

“Ireland desperately needs a proper sit-down, intensive forum or consultation where the responsible stakeholders come together and plot out where the different agri sectors are now, and where they need to be in five or 10 years,” Murphy said.

“We think that the lack of an underlying plan is becoming really destructive and the day-to-day managing of this sector by the Department and Minister McConalogue – and the wider Government - just is not convincing,” he said.

“What’s the plan here?” the ICMSA representative asked.

Conor Mulvihill of DII said the drop in milk supplies this year came as “no shock” for those in the dairy industry and highlighted the need for action.

“It is key that we work hard at national and EU level to ensure that some of the examples of policy incoherence that we are seeing, such as the nitrates derogation, are addressed to inject confidence back into the industry,” the DII director said.

Strengthening milk supplies

However, Mulvihill predicted that milk supplies could strengthen through the back end of the year if the weather holds. “With the slightly better weather in recent weeks, we do expect a pick up,” he said.

Mulvihill also pointed out that fundamentals of the dairy industry remained positive, and tightening production in Europe continued to create market opportunities for Irish dairy farmers.

“Report after report shows that dairy demand across the globe is growing strongly, year on year as we prepare for a planet population of 10bn,” he said.

Projections

“We also see from Commission projections that the EU is slated to reduce overall milk production; that will give the Irish dairy industry opportunities close to home in some of the world’s wealthiest markets,” Mulvihill said.