Suppliers of poultry to Manor Farm have voted ‘no confidence’ in the business’ CEO Ado Carton, according to the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA).
The suppliers of broiler chicken cast the vote at an online meeting recently.
According to the IFA, the “unprecedented” measure was “the culmination of farmers’ frustration”.
This “frustration”, the association claimed, arose from “the failure by Manor Farm to resolve several issues over the past number of months”.
The IFA Manor Farm Growers Group says that it has had “ongoing engagement” with Manor Farm management.
“[The grower group] was willing to negotiate and bilaterally reach agreement on many issues concerning the specialised and dedicated role that broiler farmers play in the supply chain of Bord Bia quality-assured chicken to the retail shelf and the Irish consumer,” the IFA said.
“The failure to adequately and satisfactorily deal with these issues led to enormous frustration among the group.”
According to the growers group, the issues that led to the vote of no confidence included a lack of support for a contingency fund to address pressures on farmers from poultry disease.
The IFA claimed that farmers had not supported the national fund model that had been pursued by Carton.
The group also pointed to the increased demand for Irish chicken over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“This increased demand should have seen production and throughput on Manor Farm broiler farms increase to match demand. However, the opposite occurred.
“This…has reduced the financial viability of every farmer in the supply chain,” the group argued.
Finally, the growers expressed concern that a failure to resolve the dispute with Manor Farm could lead to a shortage of fresh Irish chicken on supermarket shelves.
The group said that its vote had been communicated to the head offices of Manor Farm’s owner, Scandi Standard, in Stockholm, Sweden.