Pig farmers are reporting losses of between €35 and €40 per finished pig, as factory prices are no longer sufficient to cover feed costs on many farms.

Financial necessity will push approximately 10% of pig farmers out of business within the next few weeks unless significant funding is made available, IFA pig chair Roy Gallie has told the Irish Farmers Journal.

‘Facing Armageddon’

The reason for the negative margin-over-feed has been supermarkets’ unwillingness to charge more for pork products on their shelves, Gallie argued.

“Retailers are still up to their dirty tricks and people are now in real trouble – we are facing an Armageddon. We will have to borrow our way out of this and these borrowings will leave us with a millstone of debt hanging from our necks.

Farmers are looking at full houses, nine months’ worth of pigs, and know that they are losing money on every single pig

“The word I would use to describe the situation is frightening. Farmers are looking at full houses, nine months’ worth of pigs, and know that they are losing money on every single pig that will come out,” Gallie added.

The Kildare pig farmer stated that a food ombudsman would no longer be adequate to deal with the issue of supermarkets selling food at prices below the costs of production.

“We have been shouting and shouting about a food ombudsman for years. It has now gone beyond a food ombudsman – we need a food regulator,” he said.

‘Nightmare’ scenario

Monaghan pig farmer Frank Brady explained that the situation is now dire and that it was difficult to see how things could decline further.

“You go to bed and the last thing you want to do when you wake up is go to work. The better you work, the more you lose – it is the worst nightmare I could think of.

There are cycles within pig farming. It is well-known that farmers build up a cushion of funds for when prices drop

“We are all in negative equity. Ten to 15% of farmers are ready to jump [away from the industry], they just cannot get sows killed so they keep serving them. They just can’t get out,” Brady said.

Tom Sherman from Co Louth said credit lines have been stretched.

“There are cycles within pig farming. It is well-known that farmers build up a cushion of funds for when prices drop.

“What we have seen over the past six months has been unprecedented though. We are down 45-50c/kg. These funds are completely, utterly, totally gone,” he stated.

Funds

Sinn Féin spokesperson on agriculture Matt Carthy has called on the Minister for Agriculture to deliver funds from the €1.05bn Brexit Adjustment Reserve to the pig sector, which has been “hit hard by a perfect storm of crises”.

“If the Brexit Adjustment Reserve cannot be utilised for this sector, at this time, then it is difficult to see how any farmer will ever benefit from it,” Carthy said, adding that the impact of Brexit is incredibly apparent.

“Brexit has seen exports to the sector's most important market reduce by 14%, while transport costs have mitigated against prospects of alternative markets offsetting this.”