Speaking in advance of the June round of milk price announcements, ICMSA Dairy chairperson, Noel Murphy, said that while the association expected milk prices to “comfortably hold”, he again repeated his conviction that co-ops and processors must be cognisant of the financial pressures their suppliers were under and endeavour to pass back every cent they could.
“The contrast between the first six months of 2026 and 2025 will become fully apparent once the June payments hit bank accounts, but initial estimates indicate that there is approximately a 12cpl difference between prices achieved in the first half of 2025 and those of 2026. Using CSO data and estimating milk price and supply for June, ICMSA calculations show an average base price of 37.6cpl at base constituents for 2026.
“This compares to 49.5cpl in 2025. These results vividly illustrate the 2026 experience ‘on the ground’ for dairy farmers and, with increased input costs in 2026, the contrast and the pressures they are under could not be starker. That 12cpl would amount to around €31,000 on a standard 500,000-litre-per-annum dairy farm, hovering around the average yearly income in large parts of the economy.
“If external factors are neutral, then it’s imperative that our co-ops and processors squeeze every last cent they can out of their sales and funnel that money back directly to their farmer-suppliers. They must know how pressurised their suppliers are – and if they don’t know, then there’s something very wrong with their understanding of their business,” said Mr Murphy.
