President of ICMSA, Pat McCormack, is calling on corporate retailers to confirm that reductions in the price they charge for milk and butter will be “entirely” funded out of their own margins and will not be passed back to their supplier Co-ops.
Mr. McCormack was commenting as Tesco announced a first reduction in the price it charges for milk since 2020 and cut the price of butter by 40 cents.
The Tesco announcement rounds off a five-day period that has seen all the major corporate retailers operating in Ireland cutting the prices they charge for milk-based staples and Mr McCormack questioned what he said was the obvious targeting of two key indigenous food products produced by farmers now facing production costs higher than the price they will receive.
The ICMSA leader said that the events of the last few days raised several pertinent questions about the role of the state agencies ostensibly charged with monitoring consumer prices.
The Tipperary based farmer says farmers are trying to get an analysis of the makeup of current fertiliser prices. The issue of margins along the supply chain from producer to consumer needs to be made more transparent according to the ICMSA especially if the Government expects to deliver whole sector climate transition.
