Irish Farmers' Association's (IFA) poultry committee chair Nigel Sweetnam has said that further action will be necessary in the follow-on from meetings with food retailers if there is no improvement on the price for poultry delivered to farmers.

The committee met with the association’s president Tim Cullinan on Monday to give an update on the income crisis facing poultry farmers.

Rising costs and low supermarket food prices have eroded poultry farmer margins to a point which the IFA has said is unsustainable.

Loss leaders

Food from the horticultural, pig and poultry sectors are being employed as loss leaders by supermarkets, according to the IFA.

“We met Lidl and Tesco last week and we have meetings arranged with the other retailers, but the time for talking is running out,” Cullinan said after discussing the sector’s issues with the committee.

“I want to make it clear to retailers that farmers in these sectors are united and determined.

“The retailers must go back to their suppliers and sit down with them to agree a pricing structure which ensures the economic sustainability of farmers and growers,” he said.