Sheep farmers to protest at factory lamb price cuts

Sheep farmers will protest outside the country’s major lamb factories from this evening in a revolt over the impact of lamb price cuts by the factories on their incomes.

Meat processors have rejected claims they are trying to rip off farmers by attempting to collapse prices prematurely. They have attributed the recent drop to a fall in returns from the French market and a collapse in the demand for lamb skins.

Cormac Healy, Meat Industry Ireland, representing factories, said that targeting the processing plants for the current difficult market conditions will not provided a solution. He said the processing industry is fully aware of the need for sheep farmers to receive a viable price for lambs. “But farmers and their representatives must realise that market conditions determine the price and these market conditions will vary.”