Costs of production for Irish farmers have increased by some 73% in the last seven years, the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has said.

At the National Ploughing Championships 2024 today (Tuesday, September 17), the IFA’s director of policy Tadhg Buckley launched a report into the impact of global events, such a Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine, on the cost of doing business for farmers.

The 73% increase figure applies across all sectors for the period 2017-2023.

The sectors that saw the largest increase in costs were dairy and tillage, which incurred cost increases of 86% and 106% respectively.

During the same time period, farm incomes have dropped by an average of 34%. According to Buckley, the continued cost increases are unsustainable at farm level.

“Our farming sector has to compete in a global market while operating in a very high-cost economy. We also have much tighter and constantly increasing regulation. It is not sustainable,” Buckley commented.

IFA president Francie Gorman said that the increase in the cost of farming needs to be addressed.

“While the increases reflect inflationary pressures, they also reflect higher compliance costs due to ongoing increases in regulations.

According to the IFA’s figures, the drystock sectors have seen somewhat lower levels of increase. However, incomes were at lower levels to begin with in these sectors.

“While costs have increased, turnover or total revenue has not kept pace, which is one the core reasons for the decline in income,” Gorman said.

He added: “Reduced output price is not the only reason for the reduction in turnover. Increasing regulatory requirements, which is reducing farmer productivity, is also leading to lower turnover.”

The IFA called on the government to step up support for vulnerable sectors in Budget 2025.

As well as that, the association called on the government not to exclude farmers from any support schemes aimed at small businesses.

“The most recent Increased Cost Of Business (ICOB) scheme announced as part of Budget 2024 effectively excluded farmers by its design. This is patently unfair as farm businesses are suffering from the same increased costs as small business in other sectors of the Irish economy,” Gorman said.