'Nothing seems to happen if we’re not out on the streets': Farmers protest in Cavan
Roy Gallie, IFA pigs committee chairman
Farmers are protesting at retailers in Co Cavan today over the prices being passed back to producers as they "haven't stopped losing money since this time last year".
Pig, poultry, and egg producers involved with the Irish Farmers' Association have this morning targeted Aldi and Lidl in Cavan town, it is understood.
IFA pigs chairman Roy Gallie told the that "if we're not out on the streets, we're not in the public eye, we're nowhere".
"We’re assumed to be grand, and we’re far from grand because we haven’t stopped losing money since this time last year," Mr Gallie said.
He said they picked these "discounters" to hold demonstrations at "because their prices are the lowest of all of them, we’ve got to start somewhere, so we said we’d start at the bottom of the pile who are selling pork meat at the cheapest".
"We realise also that there is a cost of living crisis and that we absolutely understand, but everybody has to tighten their belts," Mr Gallie continued.
"I believe the discounters also have to tighten their belts so that they can actually secure a supply of food going forward because if we don’t all take a little bit of pain in this game, the pig farmer will disappear, the poultry famer will disappear, and the egg farmer will disappear."
He said that pig, poultry, and egg producers are "all in the same boat because we're very high consumers of cereals, which are at record prices, and we're now at record energy prices too".
"We’re the fall guys basically; everybody else's costs are whittled down to us because we’re simply price-givers and price-takers and have no control over either," Mr Gallie said.
He explained that this time last year he was losing €20 a pig, and it rose to €40 during the year.
While Government support was secured this year through an exceptional payment scheme for the pig sector, Mr Gallie said the money farmers received "disappeared of course into the very expensive feed that we paid for during the year when the pig price was very low".
"The average pig farmer, their debt is up close on €380,000, we calculated since we started this campaign 400 days ago," he said.
"Farmer's bank accounts are increasing in the red every day. We want, at the very least, to get to a stage where we’re not actually losing money."
While pig prices have much improved, Mr Gallie said, "with this whole cost squeeze that’s going on globally, we are still losing money, which is quite extraordinary".
"I never thought I’d see the day come that our costs spiralled like this. We just haven’t been able to meet our debts."
Mr Gallie said that the IFA has been in contact with Lidl and Aldi, along with other retailers, and has sought meetings with them on the matters affecting pig and poultry farmers, to varying degrees of success.
"Nothing seems to happen if we’re not out on the streets. It seems to be the only way we can actually get attention, and get action," Mr Gallie added.
"We’re a very small cohort in number terms, but we produce a significant amount of food for the consumer, and we want to make sure the consumer continues to have Irish food on offer on the supermarket shelves, and for that, we have to take action to make sure we survive."
IFA poultry chairman Nigel Sweetnam has criticised that an initial requirement of 15c per chicken "has not been delivered to all chicken farmers", and that egg producers, without a further 2c ringfenced for them, "are facing closure".
Aldi and Lidl have been contacted for comment.
