Lakeland Dairies and Glanbia held their milk price for February supplies.

Lakeland set its price at 30.17c/l, excluding VAT but including a lactose bonus, and also held its price in Northern Ireland at 25.25p/l.

Glanbia set a February price of 29.41c/l, excluding VAT. With all unconditional bonuses included, Glanbia will pay a price of 32.65c/l, excluding VAT. Glanbia chair Martin Keane said: “The global spread of coronavirus is affecting dairy supply chains and ultimately trade.”

Last week, the Ornua purchase price index (PPI) held steady at 111.6 percentage points – the equivalent of 31.97c/l, excluding VAT. The base prices paid by Lakeland and Glanbia are below this.

Weather

Exceptional rainfall in February and early March has seen milk collections fall. In the west of the country, Kerry Group reports collections for the last week of February were down 4% and March is down 3.2% to date compared to the same period in 2019.

In the east, Glanbia reports February supplies to be flat relative to February 2019 but the first week of March supply is down 1.5% relative to the same period last year.

Arrabawn also reports milk supplies dropping off in late February and early March relative to 2019. Aurivo reports February supplies up 7%.