Figures have been made available that underline the serious economic impetus provided by Louth’s highly regarded dairy sector. ICMSA, the state’s specialist dairy farmer organisation, has published data estimating that the county’s dairy farmer income will comfortably reach €57 million this year.
ICMSA President, Pat McCormack, noted that this milk revenue is multiplied by a standard 1.6 as it goes into the wider local economy and that, effectively, local dairy farmer income could be worth well in excess of €90 million to the wider local economy.
Mr McCormack said that the latest figures show what everyone should have realised by now: Milk is effectively the fuel of our indigenous rural economy. He said that farmers’ milk incomes go straight into their local economies through fertiliser, feed, various contractors, fuel, and services and retail of every type.
The ICMSA President said that it was already obvious that inflationary inputs costs have already nearly overtaken the prices that dairy farmers receive, but the overall economic importance of milk production had to be grasped by policymakers. “Politicians must realise that the kind of slow strangulation of our dairy sector that’s being presented as a ‘transition to lower emissions’ is going to have the most profound negative consequences for our rural economies.
“The kind of cuts that the Government is forcing through will have the same negative multiplier on Louth’s economy as rising milk production and prices have had in positive terms. That local milk production is the fundamental economic basis for the local rural economy and these hard figures prove that conclusively”, said the ICMSA President.
