DII looking at milk collapse ‘from executive suite’ - Drennan
Taking the observations expressed by Dairy Industry Ireland that having an approach that adopted a view that an EU-wide Voluntary Milk Reduction was likely to have little impact, the organisation has been pressing for the development of a policy that is directed towards greater risk management instead, the President of the ICMSA, Denis Drennan, has proposed.
This would be more likely to reverse the ongoing collapse in milk prices and the Association would, naturally, prefer if any reduction in supplies were to be a voluntary measure. It has been implemented on previous occasions when prices have collapsed and has proved effective in the past.
“But if, as we suspect it is, this is more of a vague aspiration and some kind of general hunch about possible remedies ‘down the road’, then DII must understand that dairy farmers won’t really be in the humour to entertain that. They are milking cows twice a day and losing money twice a day, and we are talking about thousands of euros per month. Against that reality, maybe we’ll leave the grand chat about ‘whole of sector’ movements towards risk management to another time when the farmers are not completely focussed on trying to stay going from day to day,” he said.
Read the full story in Kerry’s Eye Digital Edition.
The EU response on fertilisers is ‘inept’ - IFA
The ‘leaking’ of a draft of the EU Commission’s Fertiliser Action Plan has revealed just how lamentably unaware the members of the Commission are of the ravages of the expenses of having sufficient fertiliser on hand for farmers, the President of the IFA Francie Gorman said after studying the report which is due to be published on Tuesday next.
“Based on these reports, the Commission’s Fertiliser Action Plan will do absolutely nothing to address either the availability or the price of fertiliser. To consider publishing a Fertiliser Action Plan and not address the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism is quite incredible. One would have to question if the Commission has any interest at all in addressing the price or availability of fertiliser across the EU.”
The Commission introduced a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism tariff on imported nitrogen fertiliser across the community at the start of this year. This measure coincided with an enormous increase in global prices, almost doubling them in fact.
Read the full story in Kerry’s Eye Digital Edition.
