Dale Farm makes improved sustainability at farm level its key objective

Group CEO, Nick Whelan, commented: “Later in the summer we will be engaging with our members on the road map to meeting the required climate change targets, set out in Northern Ireland’s climate change legislation.”

According to Whelan, these targets will be assessed by an outside body, SBTi, for approval.

SBTi is a partnership involving the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), the United Nations’ Global Compact, World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

SBTi will act to ensure that the targets and improvements are externally audited and credible.

Nick Whelan again: “We will be setting a near term target of a 31% reduction in the greenhouse gas footprint of our milk by 2030.

“This is fully in line with climate change legislation.

“We are in the process of developing our sustainability programme, to achieve the necessary steps to satisfy the requirements needed for the SBTi targets.

“As we embark on this process there will be a financial incentive included in the base price to reflect the importance of meeting these climate change targets.

“Dale Farm field staff will be on hand to help our farmers navigate their way through this process.

“The focus will be on the development of efficient farming practices: efficient farms are low carbon farms.”

The Dale Farm sustainability programme will evolve as progress is made towards the attainment of government’s targets.

“Given the importance of this topic in today’s society, we will organise local meetings in each district with our farmers to discuss, in detail, our plans to achieve this,” Whelan further explained

“We are conscious our farmers need to hear the finer details from the Dale Farm team at the proposed meetings firstly.”

Meanwhile, Dale Farm’s CEO is also indicating that farm gate milk prices may start to strengthen again during the fourth quarter of this year.

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He commented: “Milk production levels are starting to fall across many of the world’s most important dairying regions.

“Markets respond to supply: demand factors. But there are indications that milk prices could remain at reasonable levels, once we get into 2024.

“Labour availability has become a critical factor in the milk production equation right around the world.

“Meanwhile, the demand for milk and dairy products continues to grow.”

Whelan made these comments in the wake of Dale Farm publishing a set of very positive accounts for the year ending March 31st 2023.

Group turnover was up at £728m compared to £591m the previous year. Group operating profit has increased to £35.5m, up almost £10m on the previous year (£25.6m in 2022). Group net profit before tax came in at £26.8m (the previous year’s figure was £22.1m).

The co-operative’s earnings before interest, tax and depreciation (EBITDA) have also increased from £33.8m year ending 2022, to £43m for the year ending 2023.

Nick Whelan commented: “On behalf of the Dale Farm team, I’m delighted to see the strong performance, building on a robust set of results in 2022.

“These figures show our strategy is working, with our focus on research and development, portfolio management and brand performance contributing to this growth, alongside favourable global commodity prices in the first half of the financial year.”

He concluded: “We have made cost efficiencies across the business in response to rising food prices and remain committed to being as agile and profitable as possible. This has enabled us to pay a competitive milk price and be able to invest in the future stability and sustainability of the cooperative.

“This strong performance can only be achieved by dedicated and talented people, and I want to thank the entire team at Dale Farm for their efforts.”