Ireland

The Irish poultry market is facing a major crisis

Poultry

"There is a strong possibility that shelves will be empty in the supermarkets as farmers won’t continue to place day-old birds or layer hens unless their costs are recovered," warns IFA Poultry Chairman Nigel Sweetnam.

Posted on Apr 06 ,11:29

The Irish poultry sector is confronted with an increase in costs and low margins for farmers and that may be the start of a crisis, as IFA Poultry Chairman Nigel Sweetnam underlined in a press release. "There is a strong possibility that shelves will be empty in the supermarkets as farmers won’t continue to place day-old birds or layer hens unless their costs are recovered," he warned.
So far, negotiations have been taking place with processors and egg packers as part of the IFA campaign to recover farmers’ costs from the marketplace. Nigel Sweetnam said producers cannot get anymore credit and cannot afford to pay their energy bills.
“The war in Ukraine has driven feed and energy prices to unprecedented levels, meaning that in the case of the chicken processors, there are additional feed and energy costs that need to be covered, before they pass back the required increase to farmers. The increase offered by the processors and egg packers, from their share of what they were able to get from the marketplace, is far from what producers need,” he said.

The Vice-Chair of the IFA Poultry Committee Brendan Soden said producers 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. What we produce is top quality, but at prices which are not sustainable. We intend to highlight the absolute necessity for our costs to be recovered from the food chain immediately,” he mentioned.

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