Irish merchants “must” match the prices paid by cooperatives for green feed wheat and barley, according to Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) grain chair Kieran McEvoy.
There has been a number of co-ops confirming their harvest 2024 grain prices. Prices are up by approximately €20/t on those published by merchants three weeks ago.
McEvoy said that grain merchants have outlined their intentions to pay prices “significantly below these levels”.
“This is simply not acceptable; these merchants need to go back to the drawing board and relook at their prices,” McEvoy said.
“The unfortunate reality is that even at €210/t for barley, tillage farmers on rented land will be loss making or operating on minimal margins, every euro per tonne makes a difference to tillage farmers,” the IFA national chair said.
Grain prices
Despite a challenging winter and spring for crop production to work in, McEvoy said that Irish wheat and barley is of “excellent quality” this year.
The Irish harvest has now been completed. Spring crops have outperformed winter cereals by a considerable margin. The quality of spring wheat, oats and barley crops is reported to be very high.
“There must be a premium placed on our native feed grains, which have an inherently lower carbon footprint than other feedstuffs,” he said.
McEvoy added that the IFA National Grain Committee is asking livestock farmers to “insist” on native grain for feed rations this winter and support merchants and feed mills who give priority to Irish grain.
“Without proper support for our native grains, our national production will only continue to decline which will only further increase the reliance on imported products,” he said.
Revisions to European grain output have continued to limit global price losses. The European trade association, Coceral, cut its estimate for the EU-27+UK total crop to 280.3 Mt.