Kerrygold owner Ornua has begun discussions with US retailers around the pricing of its premium butter product in the wake of the 10 per cent tariff placed on imports last week by President Donald Trump.
Speaking to Inside Business, a podcast from The Irish Times, Ornua chief executive Conor Galvin said a 10 per cent tariff would result in a €50 million hit to Kerrygold over a year.
He said a 454g block of Kerrygold typically costs about $9 in US shops and the company has been running down product that was stockpiled before the tariffs were introduced.
“There’s [Kerrygold] product in the US that did not attract the 10 per cent tariff,” he said, adding that it has “started” discussions with retailers on pricing for butter now arriving into the US that will be subject to the tariff.
“We are having conversations at the moment about what pricing will be around the 10 per cent tariff. We have to be respectful of the consumer that’s paying more for the Irish butter product than the US equivalent product but equally I’m tasked with driving value with Kerrygold and particularly for Irish dairy farmers.
“We’re trying to minimise the impact that a 10 per cent tariff would have on a US consumer but that remains to be seen as to wherther the prices moves in the coming months.”
Kerrygold is the number two premium butter in the US, with one in five households in America using Kerrygold’s butter or cheese products, according to Mr Galvin. “There’s practically no store in the US, whether it’s on the coasts or in the interior, that you won’t find Kerrygold in. That comes back to the success of the brand that the distribution is so deep.”
Ornua employs 800 staff in the US, with 700 working on “domestic production”, making products from local dairy, with about 100 working on the Kerrygold brand.
Ornua reported revenue of nearly €3.4 billion for last year, which was flat on 2023.
The State’s largest dairy exporter said the results reflected “a strong trading performance amid volatile conditions driven by the impact of cost inflation and a pressurised milk supply”.
The group’s latest full-year results show its operating profit rose by almost 12 per cent to €130.5 million in 2024 despite what it described as “difficult market conditions” with milk volumes pressurised and adverse weather conditions taking their toll.
Nonetheless Ornua said Kerrygold “strengthened its position as Ireland’s most successful food brand” with approximately 12 million retail packs of Kerrygold butter and cheese sold globally every week.
Ornua is owned by eight of the country’s leading co-ops; Glanbia Ireland, Aurivo, Carberry, Lakelands, Arrabawn, Dairygold, Tipperary Co-op, North Cork Co-op. These eight groups sell about €1 billion worth of butter, cheese and milk powders to Ornua each year, much of which is sold under the Kerrygold label, though it has been manufacturing its own butter at a new high-tech plant in Mitchelstown, Co Cork – Kerrygold Park – since 2016.
In its results, the group noted that 2025 marked 10 years since Ornua’s rebrand from the Irish Dairy Board, a move which coincided with the lifting of EU milk quotas.
