‘A difficult situation became a crisis’

A DIFFICULT situation for pig producers became a crisis at the weekend with the discovery of the dioxin problem, a conference was told in Tullamore, Co Offaly, yesterday.

Teagasc specialist Michael Martin said pig producers in Ireland have incurred very substantial losses from July 2007 to June 2008.

A recovery in profitability occurred in July of this year, but this has been short-lived as prices have plummeted due to difficulties in the global financial markets and the economic recession.