Milk price rise predicted by ICMSA

Speaking in advance of the announcement of the first round of 2021 milk prices by purchasing Co-ops and processors, the Chairperson of ICMSA’s Dairy Committee has noted the current impressive momentum behind the milk markets and concluded that it must return higher prices to the farmer-suppliers in the coming months starting with the upcoming January price setting.

“The milk ‘spot’ market has seen very strong momentum in the first four weeks of 2021 and that’s backed up by positive farmgate increases from Southern Hemisphere where Fonterra have upped their predicted price range for the season.

“This momentum is really visible in the Global Dairy Trade which has just recorded its sixth straight increase and is now at it highest point in almost seven years. Demand from Asia for powders is a very significant factor and that can be seen in the 3cpl increase for the standard butter/SMP mix and 1.5cpl for WMP in Dutch quotations over the four weeks of January, which is very substantial jump in a short period.

January is a low milk production month in Ireland but farmers will absolutely expect a price rise proportionate to the market surge and they’ll expect that momentum to carry on into the coming months where production begins to climb”, said Gerald Quain.