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Another call for EU assistance for dairy producers

Dairy herd

Northern Ireland’s Agriculture Minister is joining the call for the European Union to raise its dairy intervention price. Michelle O’Neill says dairy farmers have warned they will go out of business if they do not get higher prices for milk. Producers have been getting around 19 PPL (pence per liter), well below the estimated 25 PPL cost of production. The EU intervention price, the trigger for the purchase of excess butter and powder is 16 to 17 PPL. O’Neill and others say the Union must raise that trigger price.

In U.S. dollars: the trigger price is approximately $10.96 per hundredweight, the current farmgate price is around $13.10 and the cost of production is about $17.00 per hundredweight.

O’Neill tells the BBC she will lead a delegation to meet with E.U. farm commissioner Paul Hogan in the coming weeks.

Northern Ireland’s Assembly Ag Committee will hold a special session on Thursday to hear from dairy producers and industry personnel about the crisis. There are more than 2,500 dairy farms in Northern Ireland.

Farm milk prices in the U.K. have plunged because of low global prices and a price war among major supermarket chains.

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