Resilient Carbery is ‘feeling the impact’ of dairy crisis

WEST CORK dairy group Carbery is ‘feeling the impact’ of the unprecedented challenges facing the Irish dairy industry but it has no plans to cut jobs.

In recent weeks, Kilkenny-based cooperative Tirlán, Ireland’s largest milk processor, announced it was planning cost-cutting measures which could result in 150 redundancies. Tirlán cited rising costs in energy, interest rates, and wages, added to environmental compliance challenges and declining milk supply volumes.

Carbery chief executive Justin Hawkins told The Southern Star that the group is facing similar challenges but believes it is well-placed to meet them. ‘We are confident that our business model is strong and can withstand current market challenges and we are not currently communicating redundancies or job cutting measures,’ Mr Hawkins said.

‘However, the situation within the sector is very uncertain, and we are certainly feeling the impact of the increasing costs that a lot of businesses are bearing in the current climate.

‘To manage this and ensure we remain competitive in an industry with tight margins, we are prioritising the delivery of a diverse, high quality, high value portfolio that maximises returns for our shareholders and for our business, while keeping costs under close review and focusing on what is critical to delivering this, as we always do.’

The comments from Mr Hawkins will be widely welcomed in West Cork and across the dairy sector. Last month the ICMSA said it feared the 150 redundancies which could be imminent at Tirlán were ‘just the beginning of a wider sector restructuring’, and chief executive Denis Drennan aimed his criticism at the Government and the EU, citing what he deemed ‘deliberately depressive policies and regulations piled on low prices and high inputs prices’.

‘We are in danger of entering a period of decline of the sector that more than any other provided prosperity and economic prospects to rural areas all across the State. The tragedy – and in time it will be judged as exactly that – is that it was perfectly possible to move smoothly towards our environmental targets while preserving our world-leading dairy sector and the rural economic bulwark it represents,’ said Mr Drennan.

Mr Drennan also called on Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue to clarify what he plans to push for as part of a new EU Cap budget.

Minister McConalogue told last week’s EU Farm Council meeting that Ireland would be seeking a ‘robust’ new budget.

Mr Drennan said that while farmers would welcome the strong words, they would also want to know whether Minister McConalogue’s statement meant that the government intended seeking ‘a substantially increased Cap budget of the size required if farmers were to survive while meeting more and more regulations being imposed on them’.