The Dairy Ireland Annual Conference will take place in the Firgrove Hotel, Mitchelstown, Cork on Thursday, July 25th.
The theme of this year’s conference is “Moving Forward with Confidence”. This event will bring together key Irish and European leaders within the Dairy Industry.
The conference will be opened by recently-appointed Minister for State at the Department of Agriculture, Tom Hayes, T.D.
Frans Keurentjes, board member for Dutch Dairy FrieslandCampina will give an insight into the company’s success. Formed in 2008 with the merger of leading co-operatives Friesland & Campina, FrieslandCampina is one of the world’s leading dairy co-operatives in terms of milk pool and revenue. Of particular interest to Irish dairy farmers will be the recent announcements by Dutch dairy processors to invest over €700 million in processing facilities over the next two years; equivalent to almost a 5 cent per litre investment.
There will also be a panel discussion about future strategies within the dairy sector which will be chaired by Walter Power of Dairy Ireland.
Finance expert John Crawley will present a paper outlining on-farm cash-flow and business management.
The conference will close with a short introduction by Dairy Ireland of a new “Milk Pricing Policy” which aims to  further aid milk-pricing transparency and industry growth post-2015.
