Senior management at Dairygold and a group of milk suppliers have today (Sunday, January 19) held a meeting to discuss ongoing concerns in the co-op.
The committee of five Dairygold milk suppliers was selected following a meeting at the Firgrove Hotel, Mitchelstown, Co. Cork on Monday night (January 13).
Suppliers at that meeting, organised by Dairygold milk supplier Niall Twomey from Cork, voiced their anger at the price being paid for milk by Dairygold and about how they feel the co-op is being run.
The committee includes: Niall Twomey, Ned O’Keeffe, a former Fianna Fáil TD from Cork, Eoin Bourke from Limerick, Tadgh McSweeney from Cork, and Nigel Sweetnam, a dairy and poultry farmer from Cork.
Meeting
Dairygold chief executive, Michael Harte, chair Pat Clancy, vice-chair Donal Shinnick met with the five members of the committee for over two hours at Dairygold headquarters in Mitchelstown this afternoon.
Speaking to Agriland after the meeting, Niall Twomey from the milk supplier committee described the meeting as “very positive and very engaging on both sides”.
“They want to restore confidence again, as we do. We all want to restore confidence in our co-op again,” Twomey said.
“A good leader commands respect, they don’t demand it,” he added.
Nigel Sweetnam, who is also on the committee, said that securing a meeting with co-op management on a Sunday “outlines the seriousness of the whole situation and its repercussions for the wider dairy industry”.
“Our opening line was the scrapping of the conditions around the loyalty bonus. We discussed the milk price. We discussed the borrowings of the co-op and the structure of the loans,” he said.
“They couldn’t commitment over what anyone else was going to do, but they gave the commitment that they will do all in their power to pay the best possible milk price,” Sweetnam added.
Dairygold
The milk supplier group outlined to Dairygold management that any further capital expenditure should lead to improved efficiencies for the co-op.
There was a discussion on the moves the co-op could take to support young farmers and encourage new entrants.
The price being charged by Dairygold for farm inputs was also highlighted by the group.
A demonstration which the milk suppliers had been planning for tomorrow morning outside Dairygold headquarters has now been “postponed”.
Twomey said that this was to allow Dairygold management liaise with the co-op board and regional committees on the issues raised during today’s meeting.
The group said they hope to hear back from the co-op management by next Friday (January 24).