The country's biggest farmer-owned dairy processor, Dairygold, has reported profits of over €27m for 2014.
Turnover for the year was up slightly to €848m and was achieved despite a decline in international dairy market returns where pricing remains fairly volatile.
Dairygold processes almost 20% of the Irish milk pool and last year processed its highest ever volume of milk of almost 1 billion litres
The society stands to benefit from the abolition of milk quotas from today - and it is looking at a 60% increase in milk production output by 2020.This will result in Dairygold processing an extra half a billion litres of milk annually by 2020.
During the year, Dairygold completed the €33.5m expansion of its dairy processing campus at Castlefarm, in Mitchelstown, which enhances the facilities nutritional ingredients’ capability.
It also said the €83.5m investment in the first phase of the regeneration of the Mallow milk processing site is progressing on schedule with full commissioning targeted for early 2016.
