The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association (ICMSA) has said that some farmers were underpaid by €3,000 for this year's peak milk production.

The chairperson of ICMSA’s Dairy Committee has said that a close analysis of the figures undertaken by the organisation points to what Ger Quain describes as “systematic underpayment” for the period of May through July.

Quain said that the ICMSA had looked at the figures for a farmer supplying 500,000L/yr and compared the average weighted payments made by all the co-ops across that three-month period to the corresponding Ornua milk price plus added value.

“We weighted all the co-op prices according to their overall yearly supply and then averaged that to give a monthly figure," he explained.

"Over the same period, the Ornua price, ex added value, varied from 34.9c/L to 35.8c/L, before we add approximately 2c/L as the added value constituent of the calculation," he added.

The association added that the minimal Ornua price for June, i.e. without any added value component, was still higher than the average price paid to milk suppliers by Irish co-ops.

"That’s very serious and revealing in itself," Quain added.

For a 300,000L supplier, that becomes a €2,000 underpayment over the May-July period inclusive, according to ICMSA.

The ICMSA dairy representative added that farmers will be "very irritated but not completely surprised" by the figures.

"We can do them and we won’t be shaken off by opaque milk price formulas and payment structures," Quain added.

“The deficit in payments will have to be made good and that process will have to start immediately in the coming weeks as prices for August supplies are set."