Some 18% of 57 poultry farmers who took part in the survey say they are planning to exit the sector in 2022.

There were 16.5m birds on poultry farms across Ireland in 2020, a 50.8% increase on 2010, according to the CSO.

However, this peak, with the highest number of birds on record in Ireland, is now decreasing.

Some 35% of the poultry farmers surveyed say they plan on reducing bird numbers to combat increases in farm input costs.

The main contributor to rising input costs for poultry farmers is energy prices.

More than half (51%) of the poultry farmers say they have seen energy costs increase by more than 50% this year with 6% reporting that they have more than doubled.

The majority, 58%, have seen their farm energy costs increase somewhere between 30% and 79%.

Just 10% of the poultry farmers surveyed say there has been no change to energy costs this year.

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