IFA president Francie Gorman has warned that farmers cannot continue to manage their farm businesses with the levels of volatility witnessed in recent years.

Gorman spoke after the Central Statistics Office (CSO) reported its final financial figures on the farm sector for 2023. These figures show a significant drop in the farmgate value generated on dairy and tillage farms, driven by a decrease in prices and a fall in output.

A fall in fertiliser costs was not enough to compensate for these drops in both prices and volume, the figures show.

“This level of volatility is on a scale that individual farm businesses simply cannot handle,” the IFA president said in reaction to the CSO’s publication.

“It also illustrates the cashflow problems that exist in every sector due to the unpredictability of output prices and stubbornly-high input costs.

“We are operating in a high-cost economy, but farmers are at the mercy of international price fluctuations. As sole traders, we cannot pass on our costs and so we find our margins diminishing.”

Gorman stated that October’s budget for 2025 will provide Government an opportunity to address some of the financial strain on farmers posed by low incomes and high levels of volatility.

Among the IFA’s budget proposals are a support package for the tillage sector and higher Targeted Agriculture Modernisation Schemes (TAMS) payment ceilings.

“The wider agri-sector will have to shoulder some of this. The burden is too great for individual farmers to trade their way out of the impact of these extreme swings. We will be looking for support as bills fall due,” Gorman added.

The IFA is holding a series of meetings on the topic of farm finance over the coming fortnight, with three of these meetings still to be held.

These will be held in the Newpark Hotel in Kilkenny on 2 September, the Bloomfield House Hotel in Mullingar on 9 September and the McWilliam Park Hotel in Claremorris on 11 September.

The country’s main banks and credit unions have been invited to attend.