Drops in pig price could result in 'a threat to Ireland's food security'
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Drops in pig price pose "a threat to Ireland's food security", the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) has warned.
IFA national pig chairman Roy Gallie said pig farmers are "reeling" following a further 4c/kg reduction in pig price which was announced last Friday.
This is on top of four price drops of 4c/kg each over the past number of weeks, the IFA said.
This cut to farmgate price totals 20c/kg to date, or a reduction of €18 per pig sold.
For the average size family farm, this equates to an over €6,000 per week drop in income, according to the IFA.
"These family farms have accumulated losses in the region of €585,000 over the period from August 2021 to May 2023. With overall cost of production remaining stubbornly high, it will take another 12 months at least before farms recover their losses," the IFA said.
Mr Gallie said that current projections indicate that many farmers' bank balances "will not recover to break even until this time next year".
"Pig farmers, including some of the best young farmers in the business, have no interest in working any longer in such a precarious financial environment," Mr Gallie said.
"Can you blame them with the very real prospect of further financial difficulties on the horizon?"
There has been a reduction in breeding sow numbers in Ireland by 12% as a result of the "global pig crisis" of 2021 and 2022.
Unless farmers can return a sustainable margin to their businesses, the IFA fears there will be further reductions in the national sow herd.
These reductions in pig price "show a very short-sighted view by processors and the wider food industry following such a disastrous period for pig farmers’ margins from Summer 2021 to May of this year".
"Farmers need a sustained period of profitable margins to recover these unprecedented losses," Mr Gallie said.
"If pig producer prices are dropping while product prices to consumers increase, then who in the food value chain is making all the profit?"
Mr Gallie said that pig farmers "have had enough".
"If margins continue to be eroded, young farmers will stop serving sows and we will end up losing our own pig supply. That is a threat to Ireland's food security," he added.
