The Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA) has said that the sheep sector cannot survive the “relentless” price cuts which it is currently experiencing.

The chair of the association’s sheep committee, Sean McNamara has called on the government to recognise the crisis in the sector.

He said that farmers need to know what supports they will be offered as prices are expected to fall even further.

ICSA wool
ICSA Sheep Committee chair, Sean McNamara

“Sheep farmers need help; it’s as simple as that. Prices look set to dip below €6/kg this week which is a travesty when you consider how much our input costs have gone up.

“The sector is in crisis and it’s about time the government acknowledged this.

“This time last year we were getting €7.30/kg; to survive this year we need at least a euro more than that but now we are hearing of prices going as low as €5.80/kg,” McNamara said.

ICSA

The ICSA Sheep chair claimed that Irish farmers are being driven out of business by the influx of lamb from New Zealand into the European Union, along with the “continuous importation of UK lamb”.

He urged consumers to always choose locally produced Irish lamb.

“Imports of New Zealand lamb into China have been halted which is having a massive knock-on effect as New Zealand lamb is now flooding our traditional EU markets,” he said.

“We really need Bord Bia to step up and market our product properly so that consumers will choose Irish lamb above anything else.

“We also need our processors to show some solidarity with their suppliers. For a start they could stop bringing in so much lamb from the UK – both live, and in carcass form.

“It’s a blatant attack on local suppliers because we know it’s being done purely to keep prices here at an unrealistic and unsustainably low level.

“The reality is that we are further away from a fair price than ever. The sector is at a tipping point and without serious government intervention there is a risk of it being obliterated completely,” McNamara said.