ICOS held a meeting with the Chairman of Fonterra, John Wilson in Brussels on 8^th November. The meeting was organised by Copa-Cogeca and included farmer and co-op representatives from several EU member states including the Irish Farmers Association.

Despite the drop in the GDT auction held the same week, Mr. Wilson emphasised an optimistic outlook to the current market situation, noting that demand was still firm particularly in China and SEA. Output year to date in New Zealand is flat due to poor weather, with only a marginal increase forecast for the 2017/18 season. Due to environmental constraints, Fonterra are not predicting future growth in their NZ milk pool of 18 billion litres. In recent years, they have made a number of investments in the EU, namely in Holland, the UK and Lithuania in order to gain access to high quality whey.

Eamonn Farrell

Agri Food Policy Executive