Pig funding to cover only two months' losses
IFA President Tim Cullinan and pigs committee chairman Roy Gallie during a farmers' protest in Dublin last month over the increased cost of feed and fuel and poor prices for pig meat.
Support packages announced for the pig sector will only cover losses for April and May approximately, according to farmers.
The Irish Farmers' Association said it went to Government “looking for an aid package to support us for the year” and what has been put on the table so far is “a long way off the mark”, according to IFA pig committee vice-chairman William Murphy.
Agriculture minister Charlie McConalogue announced last week that Government approved a €13m EU exceptional aid package to support commercial pig farmers.
Under this, farmers will be eligible for a maximum payment of €70,000 per undertaking.
This supplements the €7m exchequer-funded scheme, with payments of up to €20,000 per undertaking, which was announced last month by Mr McConalogue.
The estimated loss on an average (600-sow) farm so far this year was over €160,000, according to a new report by Teagasc economists.
The IFA’s William Murphy told a recent meeting of the Oireachtas joint committee on agriculture, food and the marine that it is important to remember that as “drastic” as the current situation is for the industry, it is “short-term”.
“Teagasc predict early next year that we would be back in a profit-making situation. But we’ll be hopeful that might come a bit sooner,” Mr Murphy said.
He said that the IFA is “disappointed” with the “lack of understanding” of the severity of the current situation that Government has shown.
“We have failed to address the whole situation with the level of money that’s been offered,” Mr Murphy added.
IFA president Tim Cullinan told the committee that he is “very confident there will be market upturn”.
“We’re at the point now where this industry is ready to turn, and it’s about getting funding to get us through this cycle. We’re coming near the end of the cycle and I think that’s critical.”
However, Mr Cullinan said that “we are seeing 7% to 10% of farmers exited already”, and that there is a “real concern we could see anything up to 30% of farmers exiting this sector”.
Following last week's funding announcement, Mr Cullinan said there is a responsibility on the processing sector to be part of the survival of the pig sector.
“We need to see a substantial increase in the price of pigmeat urgently. If retailers are serious about having Irish pigmeat on the shelves, the increase needs to be passed back along the supply chain to keep farmers viable,” he said.
Meat Industry Ireland noted in its recent submission to the Oireachtas committee that further improvement in market returns will come, but that markets “take time to adjust, especially across our export markets globally”.
“Processors have worked to secure market price increases here on the home market with secondary processors and with retailers. Some progress has been made but more is needed,” MII said.
“But the home market only accounts for approximately one-third of overall output so we are also reliant on export markets to improve, albeit our influence there is obviously lower than on the domestic market.”
