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Margaret Donnelly: Lawyers likely to be the only winners in latest instalment of the farm produce branding saga

Farming Independent editor Margaret Donnelly Expand

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Farming Independent editor Margaret Donnelly

Farming Independent editor Margaret Donnelly

Farming Independent editor Margaret Donnelly

Margaret Donnelly Twitter Email

The old saying ‘closing the stable door after the horse has bolted’ comes to mind when you look at the IFA’s campaign targeting Lidl and Aldi’s liquid milk branding policy.

It now looks likely to end up in the courts, where the lawyers are the only real winners.

While the IFA should be credited for generating a campaign that has created a news story in its own right, one would have to say the liquid milk battle being fought is a little past its sell-by date.

The balance of power in the supply chain has never been so skewed in favour of the supermarket chains, but in fairness to the German retail giants they have offered very welcome shelf space to many smaller Irish food producers since their arrival here in 1999.

The IFA’s core gripe with Lidl and Aldi is the creation of what it says are ‘fake’ farm and creamery brands to market their products.

IFA president Tim Cullinan has described it as an “aggressive and misleading strategy to drag down the price paid to fresh milk producers”.

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Unfortunately, though, it’s not today or yesterday that fake farm names and farmers have started to appear on packaging as retailers looked to put a premium moniker on their products.

It’s called marketing and it’s not just dairy farmers who have long surrendered control of their product to processors and supermarkets.

This process was decades in the making and while action to address the power of retailers is welcome, it’s probably too late.

Unfortunately, the IFA campaign has also dragged up the long-running issue of milk from the South that’s processed in Northern Ireland not being allowed to carry the National Dairy Council’s coveted ‘Farmed in the Republic of Ireland’ logo.

The whole debate has the potential to become increasingly embarrassing not just for the IFA and NDC, but the wider agri-food sector.

If we’re going to nitpick at the marketing and branding of Irish food products, should we also question the phrase ‘Milk from Irish grass-fed cows’ slogan that sits on top of Kerrygold’s logo? How would we react if German farmers questioned where the ‘Kerrygold’ creamery was based?

Lost in the debate is the fact that it’s a loss of farmer control over the product on the shelves that’s being questioned at the moment.

It begs the question, who is really calling the shots? It certainly doesn’t seem to be the farmer any more.

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