Drop in Irish farm incomes far outstrips average European fall
Fine Gael spokesperson Michael Creed, who made the comparison, said it is clear Irish farmers are suffering more than most.
“While EU farm incomes fell last year by an average of 11.6%, Irish farm incomes fell by 30%.
“In fact, Ireland’s farm income decline is the third worst in the Eurostat survey, only behind Hungary and Luxembourg,” he said.
Mr Creed said Irish farmers are being squeezed out of existence by low prices, high costs and Government cuts.
“Promises from Government to address the imbalance of power between retailers and food suppliers have so far come to nothing,” he said.
Mr Creed said measures to improve competitiveness by cutting business input costs are not on the Government’s agenda.
By contrast, Fine Gael has published a bill to cut Government costs by 5%.
Food producers are central to economic recovery and his party is determined to support them, he said.
Meanwhile, Copa-Cogeca, the umbrella bodies for European farmers and agri co-ops, said the new Eurostat figures confirm the huge drop in EU farm incomes in 2009, and reinforce their demands for urgent action to be taken to remedy the crisis in the agriculture sector.
One of the main reasons for the income fall was the drop of 10.4% in the value of EU agricultural produce.
Since 2003, there has been a downward trend in the EU farm sector, with EU agricultural prices falling by 2.1% on average each year and consumer prices increasing in general by 2.5% annually.
Copa-Cogeca secretary-general Pekka Pesonen said these figures confirm their worst fears.
“Even before the current crisis, farm incomes were on average only 50% of average earnings in other sectors. EU politicians must take action immediately to improve the difficult situation,” he said.
Copa-Cogeca also said in the period post-2013, there must be a strong CAP, which maintains direct payments to farmers.
