Egg packers supplying Aldi stores have today (Wednesday, October 5), agreed to pass back 1.2c/egg to Irish egg farmers, the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has told Agriland.
The supermarket agreed to pay its egg suppliers an extra 3c/egg on Saturday (October 1), following negotiations which resulted from a five-day protest outside the Cavan town branch of the store, organised by the IFA.
When announcing the deal, the supermarket stated that the agreement reached “substantially exceeds what protesting farmers are seeking”, and added:
“It is up to our egg suppliers, and those farmers with whom they have a commercial arrangement, to engage as to how this outcome is apportioned.”
Brendan Soden of the IFA Poultry Committee told Agriland that the suppliers have now agreed to pass back 1.1c of this increase to the primary egg producer and that this is open to another review by Aldi in January of 2023.
“We were looking for 2c/egg and now we’re getting 1.1c but the most important thing is that the door has been left open to review it again in the new year,” he said.
Outlining how the protesters feel about the agreement Soden said they welcome it as a first step in the right direction.
“At least they have acknowledged that we were facing financial difficulty and that it had to be addressed,” he said.
IFA members, poultry and egg farmers were also protesting outside Lidl in Cavan town, however Soden also confirmed that this demonstration has been stood down, as negotiations with the retailer near conclusion.
“They [Lidl] wouldn’t conclude the negotiations until we left the picket line but we’re fairly confident that it’s very close to what Aldi have offered,” he said.
Speaking about the campaign itself Soden concluded by saying that it was regrettable that the farmers had to turn to protest action to get to this point.
“It’s a pity that it has taken this level of action and we would prefer not to have to go down this road again.
“Hopefully we can talk about it and be taken more seriously before we end up in a situation like this again,” he said.
Agriland contacted Lidl for comment, however it refused to make a statement on the matter.