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Northern Ireland dairy producers in big trouble

Northern Ireland’s Assembly Agriculture Committee is being recalled from their summer recess to deal with the country’s dairy crisis. Farmgate prices in the United Kingdom have been below the cost of production for months and that has put many operations on the brink of bankruptcy.

Some of the ag committee members attended a dairy producer rally at a farm on Monday where they heard repeated calls for the European Commission to raise the intervention price; the trigger for government purchases of excess butter and powder. Producers are currently getting around 19 PPL (pence per liter) for milk, well below the estimated 25 PPL cost of production yet above the intervention price between 16 and 17 PPL.

The ag committee members at the rally convinced the committee chair to call a special meeting. The government group will gather on Thursday to hear directly from dairy producers and industry representatives.

Global farm milk prices have been pushed lower by a lack of demand on the world market. The situation has been made worse in the U.K. by a price war among supermarket chains.