IFA: Failure to identify pig meat imports misleads consumers and damages industry

A FAILURE to properly identify pig meat imports is misleading consumers and damaging a national industry that is worth €400 million to the economy and directly employs 7,000 people, the Irish Farmers’ Association claimed yesterday.

IFA Pigs Committee chairman Michael Maguire, who made the claim in reference to the overall sector, was addressing a protest by more than 100 pig farmers outside Callan Bacon plant in Co Kilkenny.

He later said the company had given a commitment to significantly increase the quantities of Irish quality-assured pig meat that will be used in the future.

Mr Maguire, speaking after a meeting between an IFA delegation and Callan Bacon, said the company also pledged to introduce three new brand lines that would carry the Bord Bia quality assurance logo.

IFA will be monitoring progress in the next three months to ensure that the commitments made are implemented.

“The plant owners said they would deliver our message to the supermarkets about the importance of supporting the Bord Bia logo. This is vital if the pig meat sector in this country is to survive,” he said.

At the earlier protest, Mr Maguire said the prices paid to producers for their pigs are behind the European Union average at a time when feed costs are sky-high and producers are losing almost €1 million per week.

At the same time, secondary processors are undermining producers because they are bypassing Irish pig meat produced to the highest standards and replacing it with imported product.

Mr Maguire said the IFA Pigmeat Committee is running a campaign to highlight labels that support Irish pig meat.

Meat produced under the quality assurance Origin Ireland logo is fully traceable from farm to fork and guarantee consumers the highest standards of production.

“This campaign will involve naming companies that do not support Irish pork and bacon products, giving the consumer the choice to choose Irish,” he said.

Mr Maguire said there must be real differentiation between Irish and imported product so that the consumer is in no doubt about what is fully traceable.

“No processor or supermarket is completely innocent. Similar packaging on the shop shelves, some carrying the logo, some not, and mixed together, is another source of confusion,” he said.