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Tensions ran high at a protest staged by pig farmers at SuperValu in Castletroy Shopping Centre, with staff threatening to call An Garda Síochána if farmers did not leave peacefully on 10 August.
Up to 20 pig farmers loaded up shopping trolleys with imported pork to highlight the proliferation of foreign produce in Irish supermarkets, as growing feed bills and imported pork place increasing pressure on their own product.
“Pig farmers are being faced with financial ruin. Lads are losing 20c/kg…they’re losing €6,000 a week,” IFA pigs committee chair Tom Hogan told the Irish Farmers Journal.
“We want to see Musgraves and SuperValu selling 100% Irish pigmeat. The biggest issue we have is we come into the shop and there is plenty of the quality assurance and Bord Bia meats, but then you see Meadow Fields which might sound Irish, but it’s from Holland.”
Perfect Storm
A “perfect storm” had been created, according to IFA national treasurer Tim Cullinan, who highlighted how the drought had created competition between sectors such as dairy and pigs for feed, which was driving up prices.
“We’ve sought a meeting with Minister Creed and we’re asking him to come on board all the key stakeholders within the industry and we’d hope that the minister would do that immediately because we are in an absolute crisis situation at the moment,” Cullinan said.
Pig farmers protesting in @SuperValuIRL being told to leave peacefully or the Gardaí will be called @IFAmedia pic.twitter.com/JjYzDH7nM6
— Farmers Journal (@farmersjournal) August 10, 2018
Cheaper imports undercutting domestic produce and higher feed prices were also pointed out as a problem by pig farmer Maurice O’Brien from Mitchelstown in Co Cork.
“The main reason we’re here today is because pig farmers are going out of business. The price of pork that pig farmers are getting is falling and the price of feed is rocketing,” O’Brien said.
“Pig farmers were lucky to break even for the first six months of the year but feed prices are rising and there’s a lot of people getting phone calls from their millers, saying feed prices are going up €10/t to €20/t.
“Yet our factories are saying they’re under vast amount of pressure to sell the product but still there’s a vast amount of Dutch products for sale in supermarkets.”
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