'It's a kick in the teeth to dairy farmers' - Leitrim rep for National Dairy Committee speaks out

Leitrim representative on the National Dairy Committee, Shane McHugh has spoken out after a string of supermarket chains have dropped the price of their own-brand milk and butter ranges including Tesco, Supervalu, Centra, Aldi and Lidl. 

He was speaking as the IFA said this week that the Government must look for support for liquid farmers with IFA liquid chairman Henry Dunne telling Newstalk that it is a blow for farm owners who are already under pressure.

Mr McHugh said that the "fear is that they are trying to create a price war. Given the price of milk at the moment, it's a kick in the teeth to dairy farmers and liquid milk producers to say that our own local retailers are reducing the price of milk and dairy within the shops."

READ MORE: Carrick workshop on history of knitting coming this April

He added: "The fear is that it will create a price war and will further drive down the price of the product."

Mr McHugh said that he understands that the IFA has made contact with processors and retailers "to see if producers can get an extra few cent. The liquid milk side of things is slightly different to your commodity product in that it's required year round and many people who produce it are calving cows during the winter months when there is a much higher cost of production."

He continued that with retailers dropping the price of milk, "it's not the retailer that is going to take the hit; it's the farmer. It's going to have massive viability issues. There is already is a mass exodus of dairy farmers from the liquid milk production sector; if something like this becomes the norm, even more farmers will leave."

Farmer and councillor Paddy O'Rourke said the beef sector faced a similar situation when "supermarkets chose to make a special offering of beef products. They in turn put pressure on the beef processors. I'm aware of situations where beef processors were asked to put product on a shelf at below cost and the only way they could recoup their losses was by lowering the price and the same will happen with milk."