The Board of Glanbia Co-operative Society is proposing a number of enhancements to its proposed fund to support members and suppliers during 2015.
In addition to the €20 million already announced which will directly support milk price, the Board is proposing to allocate a further €3 million loyalty bonus to members who purchased feed and fertiliser in 2014 and / or will supply grain to Glanbia in 2015.
It is expected that the €20 million milk price support fund will be paid out to members who have signed a milk supply agreement with the timing of and conditions of payment at the discretion of the Co-op Board. The €3 million loyalty bonus will be paid out to members on the basis of €5 per tonne on 2014 feed and fertiliser purchases and €5 per tonne for 2015 grain intake.
These enhancements, which will increase the total support fund for 2015 from the Society to members to €23 million, are in addition to the 2014 patronage bonuses of up to €9 million, all of which will be put to members for their approval at an SGM before the end of February 2015.
Milk Price and Superlevy
Glanbia Ingredients Ireland also today announces that it has held milk price for December 2014 at 30.5 cent per litre (incl. VAT).
It has also been decided that for suppliers who are over quota and have signed a milk supply agreement, GII will not deduct super levy fines on supplies from January to April 2015. Any applicable superlevy fines will be deducted from milk supplied in the May to September 2015 period. Based on current projections this defers the collection of the balance of superlevy fines which could potentially be €16 million to the latter part of the year.
As previously announced, Glanbia Ingredients Ireland will also distribute to suppliers the remainder of the milk price stability fund of €2.6m in 2015, with timing to be determined by the GII Board.
Suppliers participating in the GII Fixed Milk Price Scheme are also benefiting from additional insulation from current market volatility on a substantial proportion of their milk supplies.
‘Glanbia success to support farmers through difficult 2015’
Liam Herlihy, Chairman of Glanbia Co-operative Society said at its information meetings in December Glanbia shared its plans to utilise the success and resources of Glanbia Co-op to underpin our members during an anticipated difficult 2015 dairy market.
“We are now providing further clarity on how these initiatives will work and we are scheduling a Special General Meeting to obtain approval for these proposals.
“I am very pleased indeed that our Society is in a strong position to support members at this time. Furthermore our investment of €200 million in new processing assets in Belview, Ballyragget and Virginia, without recourse to member levies, provides important value-adding capacity as the quota regime comes to an end,” he said.
