The pig sector “has never faced such a crisis as we are in now”, members of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) were told yesterday (Monday, January 17).
The association’s pig committee held a protest in Tallaght, Dublin yesterday, to highlight the “dire circumstances” in the sector at present, with costs increasing and price to farmers falling.
IFA Pig Committee chairperson Roy Gallie told protesters: “I have demonstrated on many occasions over 60 years…Now, I’m 66 years old, and there unfortunately is still the necessity to bring our plight to the attention of the government, including also now the EU.
“In 1986, we got 50p/lb for pigs. That equates to €1.40/kg. Today, 36 years later, we are getting€1.42/kg for pigs. Inflation has eroded the buying power of that €1.42 by exactly half. So we effect we are expecting half the price we got in 1986 to pay for all the costs associated with living in 2022.
“By any stretch of the imagination, this is simply an impossible task,” Gallie argued.
He highlighted the spiraling costs of inputs for pig farmers, including barley, wheat, soya protein, soya oil, minerals and vitamins. Pig feed is at “historic highs”, he noted.
As well as that, secondary inputs such as wages, insurance, electricity and transport have all also escalated.
“We are obliged and it is our duty to feed our livestock, but when the price we are paid simply pays for the feed and nothing else, we are on a fast trajectory to bankruptcy.”
Gallie highlighted the government’s Food Harvest 2020 strategy, which he said encouraged farmers to increase production.
“Too many pigs, some would say. That may be true but the government initiative of Food Harvest 2020 is directly responsible for this. Correctly at the time in 2010 we were asked to increase production. This we did to the credit of farmers and processors,” he remarked.
“We are families and we have children that may like to continue farming. The average family pig farms with 500 sows are this week hemorrhaging €10,000 each and another €10,000 next week,” the IFA pig chairperson stressed.
“In the short term there is no forecast of any improvement and they will not survive without a drastic reversal of the market, direct financial assistance from government or an increase in the retail price of pig meat that includes a greater share for the farmer.”
Gallie did take the time yesterday to thank retailers for selling Bord Bia Quality Assured (QA) pigmeat “to the extant that the do”.
“However, we are here also to explain to them the dire predicament we now find ourselves in and ask that they increase the price they pay to their suppliers as part of a farmer inclusion protocol,” he added.
The IFA representative also called on retailers to allocate more shelf space to QA pigmeat.
“We can no longer afford to pig farm. We need help and we need help fast before it is too late.”
Gallie asked Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue to “step up to the mark”.
The IFA are calling on the minister to appoint the new Food Ombudsman at the earliest opportunity, and to agree to direct aid.
“We do not want the demise of another indigenous Irish agri-sector like what happened to Irish sugar, the ghosts of which can still be seen today on the outskirts of Carlow town,” Gallie said.