Tirlán confirms Members to receive €6 million Trading Bonus

2024 Trading Bonus Scheme launched.

Tirlán Co-operative Society has confirmed €6 million will be paid to 4,700 farmer shareholders as part of the 2023 Trading Bonus Scheme.

Over €3.1 million will be paid out in February to milk supplier Members who qualified for the Trading Bonus.

Under the scheme, over €300,000 will issue to drystock farmer Members through the feed bonuses. A payment of €1.3m is currently being paid to grain suppliers, with a further €1.1 million to issue in the summer months.

The Board of Tirlán has approved that Members will again have an opportunity to participate in a 2024 Trading Bonus scheme. A Trading Bonus of 0.25 cent per litre (cpl) will be paid on all milk from suppliers that spend 8 cpl or more with Tirlán in 2024. For grain grower Members and non-shareholders, a Trading Bonus of up to €10 per tonne of grain supplied is again available for the 2024 harvest for those trading over €60 per tonne. The grain bonus was also extended to non-shareholders for the 2023 scheme and this will continue for 2024.

Commenting, John Murphy, Chairperson of Tirlán, said:

“Tirlán continues to deliver strongly for its Co-op Members. The 2024 Trading Bonus Scheme is a continuation of the very successful Trading Bonus Scheme that has operated since 2018. We have been working hard on the next phase of the Trading Bonus Scheme and we hope to bring news of exciting work done in this regard to Members in the second half of this year.

“The Trading Bonus Scheme rewards our Members for trading with their Co-op. As a 100% farmer-owned Co-op,  with €1.1 billion in equity value, it is more important than ever that we support our own business. I would again like to thank all

Members for their continued support of the Tirlán business during 2023 and we look forward to another successful year ahead.”

 

Protected Urea

The use of protected urea instead of other fertilisers such as CAN or straight urea has been identified as an impactful on-farm action to address climate change.

Sales of protected urea have significantly increased in 2023. To further incentivise this switch, using protected urea now counts as ‘double’ under the Trading Bonus scheme. Every €1 spent on protected urea now counts as €2 towards the calculation of the Trading Bonus for milk and grain.

John Murphy said: “We paid competitive prices in 2023 and offered additional supports to our suppliers through what was a challenging year. Sales of protected urea significantly increased in 2023. This is a clear indication of our members’ focus on farming more sustainably.

“We are redoubling our support of protected urea for the coming season through both our Dairy Sustainability Action Payment and our Trading Bonus.  The use of protected urea instead of other fertilisers such as CAN or straight urea has been identified as an impactful, on-farm action to address climate change.”

 

2024 Trading Bonus Scheme

The Trading Bonus Scheme rewards farmer Members of the Co-op for purchases made from the Tirlán business. For grain growers and beef and sheep farmers, the terms of the 2024 Trading Bonus Scheme are largely unchanged from the 2023 Scheme.

For milk suppliers, a Trading Bonus of 0.25cpl will be paid on all milk from Members that spend over 8 cpl on input purchases with Tirlán in 2024. For grain growers, a Trading Bonus of up to €10 per tonne of grain supplied is available for 2024 for those trading over €60 per tonne.

As shown in Table 1, the Milk Supplier Trading Bonus is worth up to €1,444 (Incl VAT) to an average supplier spending over 8 cpl with Tirlán this year.

All qualifying 2024 purchases made from Tirlán are included in the calculation. Similar to previous years, purchases made through Purchasing Groups count at 50% for 2024.

At the end of 2024, the total spend will be divided by the total litres of milk delivered to generate a cent per litre input spend for each Member. The applicable Trading Bonus will be paid in February 2025.

 

Table 1: 2024 Milk Supplier Trading Bonus*

Level of trade with Tirlán	Trading Bonus (cpl)	Trading Bonus* (€) for 550,000 litre supplier
>8cpl	0.25	€1,444 (Incl VAT)

*VAT flat rate addition will be paid on milk supplied by non-VAT registered farmers who have confirmed their non-VAT registered status in writing to Tirlán at the rate applicable at the time of payment.

 

Table 2: 2024 Grain Supplier Trading Bonus**

Level of trade with Tirlán (€ per tonne)	Trading Bonus (€ per tonne)	Grain Trading Bonus** (€ per tonne) including VAT
>€60	€10	€10.50
€50 - €60	€7.50	€7.88
€40 - €50	€5	€5.25

**VAT flat rate addition will be paid on grain supplied by non-VAT registered farmers who have confirmed their non-VAT registered status in writing to Tirlán at the rate applicable at the time of payment. The example above is based on the current rate of 5.0%.

 

Feed Bonus

Beef and sheep farmer customers of Tirlán that are Co-op Members will also qualify for a Feed Bonus on their tonnes purchased this year.

• For non-milk suppliers, the 2024 Feed Trading Bonus will be €10 per tonne of Beef, Dairy and Sheep Feed products purchased from Tirlán;
• For non-milk suppliers, the 2024 Feed Trading Bonus will be €3 per tonne for straights.

Farmer Members can log into their My Account to view their individual Trading Bonus Scheme details.

 

First Published 7 February 2024