TWO GLANBIA-owned mills in Portlaoise and Clonroche, Co Wexford, were still being blockaded by grain farmers last night in protest over the price the company is paying them for their grain.
The farmers, members of the Irish Farmers’ Association, began their protest at 8am yesterday,having accused Glanbia of paying the lowest price for grain in the country.
“Grain farmers are losing up to €50 for every tonne of grain produced this harvest.
“To add insult to injury, Glanbia, the largest buyer of grain in the country, is offering the lowest price to growers with its derisory € 85/t for spring feed barley,” said Colum McDonnell.
Mr McDonnell, who heads up the IFA’s national grain committee, said the prices on offer to grain growers were the same as the 1970s, when the cost of production then was one-third of what it is today.
Hard-pressed Glanbia grain suppliers facing bankruptcy were outraged over management’s refusal to pay the market rate of at least €95 a tonne.
“Glanbia prices are substantially below what many of the medium-sized co-ops and private merchants are paying for grain this harvest. They are setting new price lows that are €8 to €10/t below what many growers can achieve across the rest of the country.
“By virtue of its enormous buying power, Glanbia achieves higher rebates for its inputs than its competitors. These rebates must be channelled back to growers through higher grain prices,” said Mr McDonnell who led the Portlaoise protest.
A Glanbia spokeswoman said the company set its grain price on September 10th last and at the time said these prices were subject to a market-based review.
“Since then the market has disimproved further. Therefore in this context our price is competitive and compares favourably to other comparable buyers,” she said.
“The IFA protests at our mills are counterproductive as the problem is that Ireland is awash with imported grain. Glanbia, unlike many of its competitors, only uses Irish grain and if we cannot operate our mills, our feed customers will have to go to elsewhere.”