Farmers protest over closures

THE delay in the reopening of the country’s main pig processing plants led to a protest by farmers outside the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food yesterday.

Irish Farmers Association members demanded an immediate re-opening of the plants which have not slaughtered pigs since the weekend product recall. Pigs committee chairman Tim Cullinan said producers whose herds are clear of any contamination, have been unable to move their perfectly healthy animals to processors.

“They are losing sales of €1 million per day, which is putting their livelihoods in jeopardy,” he said.

Mr Cullinan said pig producers were suffering severe losses every day while supermarket shelf space was being lost to imports. He said it was unacceptable that a problem on 10 farms could shut down 450 other farms that had no association with the affected feed.

Mr Cullinan called on the processors to re-open immediately to demonstrate their reliability in their long-term markets and to safeguard their future pig supplies. “Every day the industry is closed down, more pig producers are at risk of going out of business...” he said.

Elsewhere, the Irish Grain and Feed Association (IGFA), which represents the vast majority of registered and approved commercial animal feed manufacturers, said the feed ingredient from the food recycling company at the centre of the investigation on contaminated feed has not been used by any of its members.

IGFA members account for virtually all of the 3.5 million tonnes of animal feed purchased by Irish farmers every year. It said the members operate to independently audited hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP) standards — the safety standard required to produce food.