Price squeezes forcing farmers ‘to question grain production viability’

Many professional tillage farmers are questioning the long-term viability of cereal production given the relentless price cost squeeze and the subsequent low or negative margins.

That’s the view of the Irish Farmers’ Association grain committee chairman Liam Dunne, who warned yesterday that any enterprise that is not making sufficient profits to reinvest in its business has no future.

He said Input manufacturers, suppliers, seed assemblers and the merchant trade need to recognise the gravity of the current situation, cut their margins accordingly and pass back savings to growers for the current harvest.