The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) is proposing a loan scheme from the government as a way of tackling the challenges being experienced in the pig sector at the moment.
The sector, which accounts for 6.3% of the output of the Irish agri-food sector, has been hit by a financial crisis due to rising feed and energy costs coupled with low prices paid to producers.
President of the IFA, Tim Cullinan told Agriland: “The government has to re-look at the situation again. We are in the process of putting another proposal to government and obviously the funding would be far more substantial than €7 million.”
Last month, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue confirmed a €7 million support package for pig farmers.
As part of the scheme, the €7 million would be distributed through a flat rate payment of up to €20,000 for each commercial pig farmer sending over 200 animals to slaughter annually.
Loan scheme and other proposals
Cullinan continued: “Pig farmers understand that draw that is on the resources of the state at the moment. In this proposal, we are willing to look at some type of a loan that the government would facilitate to farmers.
“In the long-term, there would be a methodology put in place where farmers would pay back that loan.
“Basically, what we are looking for now is realistic lump sum going to individual farmers to ensure that they can buy feed and continue in their business, and come up with a strategy long-term that [the] loan could be repaid to government,” he added.
In the interview with Agriland for the Farmland video series, Cullinan also said that a loan scheme alone is not the only solution to the challenges being experienced by pig farmers.
He said that other stakeholders in the food chain need to be held to account for below-cost selling of agri-produce.
“We have been running campaigns around the retail area for the last number of months and we’ve been highlighting where we are,” he said.
“We can’t continue producing pigmeat obviously at the price we are obtaining at the moment. The price of all food – but in this instance we’re talking about pigmeat – has to go up at retail level.
“That price increase has to be passed down along the chain, back to the processor who, in turn, will increase the price paid to the farmer.”
The farm association president said that at this stage, pig farmers need to see 75c/kg going from retailers back to the processors in order to ensure any kind of margin for farmers.
New markets for pigmeat
Cullinan said that Bord Bia also needs to continue working on finding new markets for pigmeat.
“California is an area that there is a demand for high-quality pigmeat. We have standards here in Ireland, so that’s a market we need to look at,” he said.
“Mexico was a market that was opened by the minister [for agriculture] over a year ago now and I accept there were issues around Covid and it was very difficult to get out there.
“But because of the fact that the restrictions around Covid-19 are lifted, we need to get out into international markets and find more markets for pigmeat as well.”