Drop in farmer numbers leads to increase milk, cheese, and butter prices

Eva Osborne

A fall in the number of farmers, and an increase in demand, has led to an increase in dairy prices.

Butter has gone up 49c per pound, to €4.23, between September and October.

Two litres of full-fat milk is 3c more expensive in shops, while Irish cheddar cheese is up 9c per kilo.

President of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA), Denis Drennan, said fewer farmers, coupled with population growth, is leading to higher prices for consumers.

"We have an issue worldwide with the number of farmers in the world is reducing. The amount of food being produced worldwide is reducing simply because we have economic pressures and the cost of production has risen exponentially in the last number of years as it has in everybody's household," he said.

"but also generational renewal and the amount of farmers willing to farm because, you know, when you look at the central statistics and see the average income of a dairy farmer in the past year has dropped 59 per cent."

The fall in overall agricultural entrepreneurial income was 49 per cent (-€2 billion) to €2.1 billion in 2023, according to the Central Statistics Office.

With the value of many agricultural outputs down, most notably milk and cereals, the value of agricultural output at basic prices fell by 13 per cent, or by €1.6 billion, to €11.3 billion in 2023.

The value of milk decreased by 30 per cent (-€1.5 billion) to €3.5 billion driven by prices being 26 per cent lower and volumes contracting by five per cent.