Members of Dairygold Co-op have again expressed several “frustrations” at the business’ management, following on from the loyalty bonus controversy.
Dairygold suppliers met earlier this week in Co. Cork to discuss their ongoing concerns.
A controversy that emerged at the end of the year over the co-op’s loyalty scheme seems to have grown into a broader issue of supplier unhappiness over how the co-op is run.
Dairygold had proposed to put a threshold in place so that suppliers would have to make the equivalent of 6c/L of purchases from the co-op in order to obtain the full amount of potential year-end payments.
Farmers
However, Dairygold confirmed last week that it was scrapping these plans due to farmer backlash.
That has not quelled farmer frustrations however, many of which were aired at the meeting of over 200 Dairygold members in the Firgrove Hotel in Mitchelstown on Wednesday (January 29).
Speaking to Agriland, supplier Eoin Bourke, one of the organisers of the meeting, claimed: “The board and CEO [Michael Harte] of Dairygold do not seem to think there is an issue here. There is a cohort of farmers there now and I suppose they’re quite upset that Dairygold won’t even engage with them.
Bourke said that many farmers feel that the co-ops democratic process is “not fit for purpose” at present.
“[The board] are quite happy to stay inside their committees. There’s two rings; there’s a regional committee and a general committee and the board are inside that, and it is quite insulated inside that.
He said that the controversy over the now-scrapped changes to the loyalty scheme “really hurt farmers” as they felt “the co-op was turning in on them in order to make a profit as opposed to providing farmers with competitive input prices”.
“Farmers want to support the co-op but they feel they were being overcharged for that and the the [loyalty scheme], then, was forcing them to buy off the co-op and farmers felt that it was completely against the ethos of the co-op that [the board] would do this,” Bourke added.
He claimed that the board “seemed to hoodwink” the Dairygold general committee in proposing the loyalty scheme changes, and that the general committee was “very upset” at this.
Dairygold supplier frustrations
According to Bourke, more longstanding grievances from members are now coming to the fore because of this controversy.
He said: “Dairygold farmers have invested heavily in [processing infrastructure] and were quite willing to do so. They do not have an issue doing that. Farmers are by their nature very practical so they did not have an issue with investing money in the co-op to put up stainless steal and improve efficiencies, but they are not getting a return from that at the moment.
“Management are being paid a lot of money to make the the right decisions and the right calls and they do not seem to have done that, and that is another frustration that is coming out,” he added.
Bourke suggested that, although the milk pool is contracting, there has not been a commensurate reduction in the business’ processing costs, unlike other processors. He cited Tirlán, which is letting some staff go.
Bourke said that there were some calls at the meeting to change the voting procedure within the co-op, which, he suggested, may make the board more accountable to the members.
“The board are inside two committees, so they are more worried about the politics going on inside those committees as opposed to being answerable to the farmers, so that’s a frustration there as well,” he said.
“If the board members were answerable to the farmers directly they would be more willing to listen to what they have to say, but because they are inside two committees, they just want to keep those members happy,” he added.
Bourke said that the farmers will meet again two weeks before the Dairygold annual general meeting (AGM), which is normally held in April.
Some farmers at the meeting on Wednesday called for a special general meeting (SGM), and it is understood that this will be discussed in more detail at the meeting prior to the AGM.
“It’s very disappointing from a farmer’s point of view that our elected [co-op] representatives will not come out to meet the farmers. They need to come out and talk to the farmers and explain to them what is going on because this issue is not going away,” Bourke said.