The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association (ICMSA) has called on Minister for Agriculture, Food and Marine, Martin Heydon to support a "call for action on EU dairy".

ICMSA president Denis Drennan has urged the minister to back the call of Belgium, supported by five other member states - Bulgaria, Hungary, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia - at next Monday’s (March 30) meeting of the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council.

The countries have called on the European Commission to "examine without delay the activation of a temporary and voluntary European programme to reduce milk production" similar to the voluntary reduction scheme introduced in 2016.

Drennan said that Monday presents Minister Heydon "with an opportunity to back this proposal" by Belgium, and "assist in beginning the process of bringing EU dairy market prices back to realistic and viable levels".

Markets

While acknowledging that markets have improved since the start of the year, Drennan said that the "collapse in milk price was still disastrous", having fallen from a base of around 50c/L in September 2025.

“Farmers have not seen any milk price increase in 2026 and seasonality bonuses will be gone for March milk onwards," the ICMSA president said.

"In the wake of the outbreak of hostilities, the situation has got even worse with fuel prices and fertiliser prices having now risen to unsustainable levels and putting farmers in a destructive and impossible costs-income squeeze."

Voluntary reduction scheme

Drennan said that ICMSA is "happy to note that six member states are now bringing this [proposal] to the table".

He said he hopes to see the Irish government and Minister Heydon supporting the Belgian proposal "that will help restore some degree of stability and predictability to a very confused and damaged scene right now".  

"The voluntary reduction scheme has been criticised by some but it’s very notable that these critics have no alternative proposal other than for dairy farmers to take the full hit of the broken marketplace - while their own positions and incomes are fully insulated," according to Drennan. 

"That’s not a sustainable position; if you don’t like the idea of a voluntary reduction scheme then you are at least obliged to come forward with another viable policy."

Concluding, Drennan said that the EU farm council and the minister "should send a strong signal" on Monday that they "recognise the difficulties in the dairy sector and that they intend to introduce measures" to support farmers and "give them a choice where the market cannot deliver a sustainable price".