Supermarket chains are “milking the consumer and creaming off the farmer” with farmers getting a price for their milk below the cost of production, while supermarket chains are “reaping huge profits”.
This is the view of Libertas European Election candidate for North West Declan Ganley. He says farmers are getting just 22c per litre of milk - when it costs them 27c to produce a litre - while shoppers are having to pay more than €1 per litre. He argues that farmers should receive a larger percentage of the consumer price while supermarket chains should display the price they pay for the milk to the primary producer on the carton on the supermarket shelf.
Mr Ganley also believes the issue of the milk quota and the expectation of farmers who thought they would have a realisable asset on retirement also has to be examined.
“The unsustainable price of milk is just one of many issues of concern to the dairy farmers in this constituency which haven’t been properly addressed by politicians,” he said. “If we want to keep the farmers on the land, we have to ensure that we create an environment which will allow them to make a decent living.”
