Ireland’s pig farming leaders are to meet with the country’s retailers over the next few weeks to press for an increased share of end product returns for producers.
The move comes on the back of what the Irish Farmers Association (IFA) has described as the “uplifting” experience of seeing what French producers have achieved by their recent “lobbying and pressure”.
“It was uplifting to see the French prices increase this week,” said IFA pigs committee chairman, Pat O’Flaherty, adding that this was despite the renewed “unease” felt across Europe following Russia’s announcement that it would extend its ban on food imports from the west for a further 12 months.
“The French price increase is a direct result of lobbying and pressure exerted by the country’s producers on retailers to pay processors more for pork.
“We will therefore be meeting with all the major retailers in Ireland over the coming weeks and will be expecting a similar outcome.”
Mr O’Flaherty also said that slaughter numbers in Ireland would indicate pigs are not as plentiful as they have been over the last number of months.
“Most recent weekly slaughter numbers are back to 59,000 compared to over 63,000 in some weeks during 2015,” he said.
The Irish price for the week ending June 22 was 103% of the EU average.