The decision taken by pig processors last Friday, February 28, to drop the pig price by 4c/kg has been described as an “overreaction to Covid-19”.
The Irish Farmers’ Association’s (IFA’s) pigs chairman – Tom Hogan – has said the processing industry “is undermining producers who have endured severe price volatility over the past numbers of years”.
“For pig factories to pull the price when the rest of Europe is heading in the opposite direction on price, above €2/kg, sends the completely wrong message to all stakeholders.
There is no justification at this stage to drop price.
“What is particularly frustrating is that processors have recently agreed a price increase with retailers,” Hogan claimed.
He stressed: “To impose cuts on pig producers at the same time is a kick in the teeth” and called on all pig factories to reverse the price cuts.
Irish pig farmers were left trailing the European pig price in March and April last year and the IFA had to organise crisis meetings and tackle individual pig factories in order to get the pig price moving upwards.
Continuing, the chairperson of the IFA’s pigs committee said: “The Irish price slowly followed the upward trend and no one can deny that pig processors pocketed increasing returns before delaying the price increase due to farmers throughout 2019.”
Concluding, Hogan acknowledged that Irish pig processors had held pig prices stable since mid-December – until last week – but said “now it not the time to over-react to the ongoing coronavirus and trade disruptions to China”.