Bord Bia chair Larry Murrin’s company, Dawn Farm Foods, imports up to 10% of the white poultry meat that enters the country, the Oireachtas agriculture committee heard on Thursday.

The Dawn Farm Foods boss explained to the committee that Ireland is “about 70%” self-sufficient in poultry meat and that the majority of the “120,000t or more” poultry meat imported into Ireland is white meat such as chicken breasts, rather than dark poultry meat like thighs.

“We import or are accountable for between 7% and 10% of the white meat that comes in,” Murrin said, stopping short of declaring the tonnage of poultry meat his company imports.

ADVERTISEMENT

Murrin also said that there are currently no non-European contingency sourcing strategies in place with Dawn Farm Foods’ pork supplies.

The Bord Bia chair’s refusal to outline the extent of his company’s importation of poultry meat in tonnage terms or state the proportion of Dawn Farm Foods’ overall poultry supplies has prompted the IFA to call for further clarification on the matter.

The IFA has sought clarification on Murrin to state “the exact amount of poultry he brought in from Brazil and other countries outside the EU in 2025”.