IFA chief accuses retailers of failing to pay farmers viable price for food
“This is not acceptable. Farmers must be paid a viable price from the market and IFA will do everything in its power to achieve this,” he told the association’s 55th annual general meeting in Dublin.
Mr Bryan, a 51-year-old livestock farmer from Inistioge, Co Kilkenny, said the discounting of Irish food produce is being done at the expense of farmers, while the multiples protect their margins and boost their corporate profits.
“This is daylight robbery and an affront to any fair sense of corporate responsibility. This corporate greed and contempt for the men and women who produce our food must be addressed.
“Politicians at home and in Europe must rebalance the food marketing chain, through legislation if necessary, to ensure that farm families can get a viable income from the marketplace,” he said
Mr Bryan said he is immediately setting up a Retailer, Processor and Consumer Relations Project Team within IFA with the sole agenda of securing viable market prices for producers from the processing and retail sectors.
“I will meet with the heads of the major retailers in Ireland and I will also meet with British retailers, which is a critical market for beef, dairy, pigmeat and mushrooms,” he said.
He warned farmers cannot and will not continue to produce below the cost of production. They produce food, in an environmentally sustainable way, to the highest quality and safety standards, and with the best traceability in the world.
“Yet, we are receiving prices that do not reflect this commitment nor reward farmers for our investment.
“For our important role as food producers, farmers need a minimum price from the market place to cover our costs of production and derive a fair income,” he said.
Mr Bryan, a former Garda, who has succeeded Padraig Walshe as leader of the 87,000 member IFA, said there is no shortage of challenges facing the farming and agri-food sector.
Mr Bryan said 2009 was a horrendous year for farmers when incomes suffered their worst decline since Ireland entered the EU.
Listing his main priorities, he said farm incomes are unsustainable and product prices must rise across all sectors. Bureaucracy and costs must be reduced.
The new Rural Environment Protection Scheme (REPS) must pay farmers properly and the single farm payment must be fully protected in the negotiation of the Common Agricultural Budget post-2013, he said.
