Poultry Farmers to Gather in Cavan Town to Highlight Income Losses

IFA Poultry Committee and producers will assemble at 11am in Cavan this morning to demonstrate at the main retailers in the town; Tesco, Aldi, Lidl, Dunnes and SuperValu in an effort to recover costs and secure the survival of the sector.

IFA Poultry Chairman Andy Boylan said, “poultry growers are caught in a classic cost-price squeeze that has to be addressed urgently. Retailers cannot rely on producers to keep going in this situation”.

Family farms that produce Bord Bia Quality Assured chicken & eggs have seen their costs of production increase at an unprecedented rate in the past year.

The cost of gas, energy, labour and animal feed have all seen inflation not witnessed by the sector in half a generation. Irish inflation shot to a 14-year high in October, which has had a damaging effect on the sector,” he said.

Vice Chairman of the Poultry Committee Brendan Soden said farmers are very concerned about their future. The EU average price for eggs has increased by 13.2%.  However, Ireland is one of only two Member States where the price has decreased by 8.4% in the past 12 months, while feed costs are up 36% on last year. This is simply unsustainable.

Andy Boylan said growers are suffering and losing money.  “Without an immediate increase in the wholesale retail price, to be passed back to egg and chicken producers, the entire sector is in jeopardy. We produce top quality, Bord Bia QA produce, at prices which are not sustainable. We intend to highlight the absolute necessity for our costs to be recovered from the food chain immediately.”