The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food is being blamed for the fact that the price that the farmer receives for his milk is lower than it should be.
According to the president of the ICMSA Jackie Cahill who is also a dairy farmer near Thurles, "the Department has collapsed the price of milk through a combination of wishful thinking and fundamental misunderstanding."
Mr Cahill went on to say that it was quite easy to explain the role that the Department of Agriculture played in reducing the price of milk. He remarked that the EU prices are protected to the extent of 18 cents a gallon due to tariffs while at the same time the world price of milk is 25 cents a litre. "Therefore, the internal EU price could be 43 cents a litre if we had a balanced market. However, our own Department of Agriculture has been caught up in the deregulatory fever, and has allowed the EU market and milk price to collapse."
He also believes that the collapse has happened because of a combination of increased production and a withdrawal of support.
Mr Cahill then explained that "with the exception of ourselves in the ICMSA no other organisation or body has ever asked what would happen if milk demand stalled or indeed dropped at the same time that production was increasing."
He is firmly convinced that this is the fundamental question "and it should have been addressed and it was not. We are getting our answer now and every dairy farmer across the country can see it in his milk cheque`' he said.
Because the ICMSA believes that the Department of Agriculture have been pursuing the wrong milk policy, it is very probable that another dreaded cut in the price of milk is just around the corner.
He told the Kilkenny Advertiser/Carlow First on Monday that "this will leave milk suppliers with a price of between 10 and 11 cents a gallon less than this time last year which is ridiculous. We must remember too that all this could be coming down the tracks at a time following a dramatic rise in milk production costs, the like of which we have never witnessed before. I do not know where it is all going go to end." he exclaimed.
The ICMSA president is calling on the Department of Agriculture to formally announce a change in milk policy with a switch into supporting measures and supply managment that will in the short term stabilise the price of milk."
He reckons that the department officials should not feel embarrassed "about admitting that they have got it wrong in the first place. However, it would be unforgivable, if they were to persist with a policy that was flawed from the very beginning" he concluded.
