Grocery regulations

New grocery regulations must lead to a fundamental change by retailers and merchants when it comes to paying suppliers promptly, national chair Jer Bergin said last week at the national potato conference. The IFA is meeting the major retailers in the coming weeks to campaign for a standard provision of payment within 30 days.

Dairy Forum

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Dairy chair Sean O’Leary has called on the incoming government to come to the table of an urgently reconvened Dairy Forum with tax-based solutions to volatile farming incomes such as those proposed by the IFA, and to take action to drive competition harder in the banking sector, including through the European Investment Bank.

Ration prices

The IFA is carrying out a round of meetings with millers to ensure that recent price decreases in raw materials are fairly reflected in compound ration prices. Pigs chair Pat O’Flaherty said that all players in the industry must achieve a fair margin if the sector is to survive and prosper.

Flood relief

Flood project chair Tom Turley has called for the Emergency Flood Damage Relief measure to be extended to farmers who have suffered crop losses as a result of the recent flooding.

He said that payment must be made without delay to the farmers who applied for this measure and to the fodder scheme.

Liquid milk

IFA liquid milk chair Teddy Cashman has presented the IFA liquid milk producers’ petition to senior officials at the Department of Agriculture in charge of overseeing the National Milk Agency (NMA). He said that the Government and the Department need to better understand the strains the sector has been under.