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Ireland - Pig farmers not getting fair deal

Published: May 22, 2006
Source : Farming Life
PIG farmers in the Republic of Ireland "are not getting a fair return from processors'', it has been claimed. Irish Farmers' Association Pigs Committee chairman, Pat O'Keeffe, said that Irish prices continued unchanged, at between EUR1.38 (93p) and EUR1.45 (98p)/kg. "Supply is tight with throughput down 4.2 per cent year to date.'' Mr O'Keeffe said the European Union average price for April 2006 was 7.9 per cent higher than in April 2005, compared to an Irish increase of 5.7 per cent. "This is a clear indication Irish pig farmers are not getting a fair return from the processors based on current market returns,'' said Mr O'Keeffe. The IFA pigs chairman said pigmeat and live pig exports were worth in excess of EUR320 million (£218 million to the Republic of Ireland country. And he warned that, unless the issues of regulations, lack of technical and advisory backup and poor profitability in the Irish industry were addressed, "the same devastating results as experienced by the British industry, which saw sow numbers drop from 800,000 in 1997 to 441,000 in December 2005 will be experienced here''. This would equate to Irish sow numbers dropping from 155,000 to approximately 78,000 at which point the entire industry would be unsustainable. There was a responsibility on all involved to ensure this did not happen. Mr O'Keeffe referred to the figures recently released by the FAO, which estimate that a steady growth in global pigmeat consumption is expected over the next 10 years by 1.7 per cent per annum. He said this was driven mainly by Asian countries which were expected to show a 2.2 per cent per annum increase over the same period and European growth which was expected to double, from 0.3 per cent to 0.6 per cent per annum. "The opportunities are there for processors to ensure equitable returns for their suppliers going forward.'' Commenting on the announcement by the OFT (Office of Fair Trading) in the United Kingdom that it will refer the grocery market to the Competition Commission on the basis of evidence suggesting the buyer power enjoyed by supermarkets could lead to market distortion, the pig farmers' leader said this was a positive move and something farmers and processors had been acutely aware of for some time. He called on the relevant authority in Ireland to carry out similar investigations. The approval of an exceptional aid allocation of EUR20 million (£13.6 million) by the German Finance Ministry to support the country's pig market, following the fresh outbreak of Classical Swine Fever, "is a positive move''. Mr O'Keeffe said he would expect the EU to agree on a co-financed buy-out scheme of pigs in the affected area. "It is vital that producers do not experience undue financial difficulties in these situations,'' he added. British Pig Executive chief executive, Mick Sloyan, has described the recent decline in the UK pig breeding herd as disappointing. However, he said there were some very encouraging signs that investment by producers was yielding improvements in productivity and in consequence in profitability.
Source
Farming Life
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