An effort to kick-start the process of streamlining the €2.5 billion Irish dairy industry will get under way this afternoon when dairy industry chiefs meet the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mr Walsh.
The main players in the dairy sector will meet for what is believed to be the first time since the March publication of the Prospectus Strategic Development Plan for the Irish diary processing sector, which employs 9,000 workers.
While the meeting, which will take place in a Portlaoise hotel, has been called to discuss a range of issues, including world trade, the most pressing item on the agenda will be the Prospectus report.
The report concluded that the Irish dairy processing companies must amalgamate or be forced out of the dairy business by international competition.
It also warned the industry was starting to fall behind its competitors and must take swift action to implement a €300 million rationalisation and reconfiguration strategy.
To achieve success, the report said, the industry should rationalise the number of processing plants for butter, powder and casein production from 11 to four. It also said a consolidated player needed to emerge in the medium term with the ability to process around 70 per cent of manufacturing milk, excluding milk for domestic consumption.
However, little has happened to achieve any of this in the fiercely competitive dairy processing sector, where traditional rivalries sometimes spark milk wars over suppliers being poached.
Mr Walsh has been meeting the main players individually but progress has been slow in getting any real movement in the area of co-operation.
Today's meeting has been given added impetus with the collapse of the World Trade Talks, where there has been increasing pressure to completely ban the use of export subsidy payments, on which the Irish dairy industry relies so heavily.