IFA pigs chair Tom Hogan has reacted angrily to the news that factories have made the decision to drop the pig price.

He said that the processing industry is undermining producers who have endured severe price volatility over the past numbers of years.

“For pig factories to pull the price when the rest of Europe is heading in the opposite direction on price, above €2/kg, sends the completely wrong message to all stakeholders.

There is no justification at this stage to drop price

"There is no justification at this stage to drop price.

"What is particularly frustrating is that processors have recently agreed an increase with retailers. To impose cuts on pig producers at the same time is a kick in the teeth,” he said.

Crisis meetings

He called for all the factories to undo the price cuts on pigmeat. According to the chair, Irish farmers were behind the European pig price in March and April last year and the IFA had to organise crisis meetings to tackle individual factories to get the price moving upwards.

Hogan said: “The Irish price slowly followed the upward trend and no one can deny that pig processors pocketed increasing returns before delaying the price increase due to farmers throughout 2019.”

He acknowledged that the pig processors held prices stable since mid-December until last week. However, he said that now is not the time to overreact to the continuing coronavirus outbreak and trade disruptions to China.

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