PIG PRICES CRISIS IFA response Pig producers came out strongly on Wednesday to support the pigs committee at their protest at IBEC and I am asking that all farmers would keep in contact with the pigs committee reps in their area for further updates. We have called on the processors to organise an open meeting for all farmers and we have requested smaller supplier/factory meetings. Please ask your factory representative when these meetings particularly the open meeting will take place. We will endeavour to keep all farmers informed of activities. Thanks for your support Pat O’Flaherty, IFA Pigs Committee Chairman PIG SECTOR ONCE AGAIN IN CRISIS CONDITION – IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED IFA President Eddie Downey speaking from outside the headquarters of the Irish Association of Pig Meat Processors (IAPP) said “pig farmers have gathered here to protest against the 42c/kg drop in pig prices suffered by farmers in the last six months. This price drop of €34 has left every producer in the country in a loss making situation, with many farms facing ruin unless prices rise”. Mr. Downey said the Agriculture Commissioner Mr. Phil Hogan and Mr. Simon Coveney need to push for the introduction of market measures in the EU that will effectively remove Country Ave Wk 1-1 Wk 1 Wk 1 2014 Netherlands 1.13 1.13 1.42 Belgium 1.21 1.21 1.41 Denmark 1.34 1.34 1.60 France 1.31 1.31 1.50 Spain 1.38 1.38 1.62 Germany 1.23 1.23 1.47 GB 1.58 1.58 1.95 Ireland 1.31 1.31 1.54 Pig Prices corrected for VAT, kill Out Lean Meat Percentage (ISN) €/kg) the excess product from the EU that as it will force farmers out of busiis depressing pig prices. ness. Irish pig prices are just keeping in line with the EU average but IFA National Pigs and Pig meat Comtoday’s price is 20c/kg below the cost mittee Chairman, Pat O’Flaherty said of production, a position that is obvi“The majority of our EU neighbours ously completely unsustainable”. held pig prices stable over the Christmas period and spot prices in our Mr. O’Flaherty said ‘there are two largest market, the UK, actually in- sides to this, the political level and at creased in the first week of the new- the Irish processors level. We accept year. Despite this, some Irish facto- that pig prices have come under ries dropped prices by 8c/kg over the pressure in the EU due to the RusChristmas period leaving farmers in a sian ban but our continental neighcompletely uneconomic position”. bours have been protected from the real pain of this ban by lower feed Mr. O’Flaherty said “Pig farmers prices. Irish feed prices have not were on their knees before Christmas dropped in line with the EU leaving and this latest drop is unacceptable us in a production cost squeeze that Media Cont. Press release issued by IFA and Processor response Commenting on the current pigmeat market situation, and responding to the IFA protest today, Joe Ryan of the Irish Association of Pigmeat Processors (IAPP), said that current Irish pig prices remain ahead of the European average, as they have done over the last 12 months. "Irish pig prices have remained well ahead of prices in many of the major pig producing EU Member States, particularly those that are similarly dependent on export markets," he said. "While prices came under pressure during the second half of 2014, this is in line with the trend across Europe. Nevertheless with Irish prices currently 140-145c/kg (depending on grade), this price level is 1015c/kg ahead of our European competitors. "The market in the postChristmas period remains very challenging. This is further exacerbated by the ongoing absence of the Russian market, which was a very important outlet for Irish and European pigmeat. This is reflected in recent calls from the main pig producing Member States, including Ireland, for the European Commission to take action to support the market. A point acknowledged by the IFA themselves. is destroying farm viability. He said the feed input sector as to take more costs out of the supply system and reduce prices further’ there is opportunism evident here and this is absolutely unacceptable, pig prices must rise immediately” Mr. O’Flaherty concluded. “The latest pig price drops were completely unwarranted, as it is clear to see that our export market and our home market continue to perform really solidly. The factories cannot continue to simply blame Russia, The IAPP issued the following statement on pig meat prices following the IFA protest "Individual Irish pigmeat processors continue to work to deliver the best price possible for their producers, but cannot buck the market. Equally processors are not responsible for feed prices in Ireland, which make up a major part of input costs and have as much influence on producer margin as the final product price." Following the protest, IFA held an open meeting for farmers in Buswells hotel where options were discussed. Should prices not increase more action will be required and we asking all producers for their support. IFA Pigs Committee Chairman Pat O’Flaherty will be on countrywide tomorrow morning with Damian O’Reilly. Pig Prices table c/kg Irish pig prices v. EU pig prices 2014 180.00 175.00 170.00 165.00 160.00 155.00 150.00 145.00 140.00 135.00 130.00 Jan14 Feb14 Mar14 Apr14 May14 Jun14 Jul-14 Aug14 Sep14 Oct14 Nov14 Dec14 Total Ireland 161.5 156.2 151.7 158.7 164.7 170.1 172.4 164.2 158.3 153.0 149.0 144.2 158.7 EU 162.5 158 154.9 163.1 165.0 169.9 169.2 164.3 159.1 143.6 140.8 52 w/e 10 Nov 13 52 w/e 09 Nov 14 12 w/e 12 Oct 14 12 w/ e 09 Nov 14 Total Meat 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 Total Beef 30.5 30.0 29.5 30.1 Total Pork 12.1 11.3 12.4 11.8 Total Lamb 5.8 6.0 6.1 6.3 Sausages 9.5 10.0 9.8 9.6 Total Bacon 18.0 17.9 17.1 Total Chicken 21.0 21.8 23.8 000's Kgs % 135 157.1 000's Euros % Total Meat 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 Total Beef 37.5 37.4 37.0 37.5 Total Pork 11.9 11.2 12.2 11.7 Total Lamb 8.2 8.5 8.7 9.1 Sausages 7.3 7.7 7.4 7.2 Total Bacon 16.3 15.9 15.2 15.4 Total Chicken 16.0 16.6 18.0 17.3 Total Meat 96.0 99.8 22.9 23.2 17.4 Total Beef 30.4 31.0 7.4 7.7 23.3 Total Pork 13.7 13.2 3.9 3.8 Total Lamb 8.6 9.3 3.0 3.1 Sausages 9.9 10.8 2.8 2.8 Total Bacon 18.2 21.7 19.0 23.0 4.6 6.5 4.7 6.4 7.26 8.92 7.30 9.10 7.31 9.16 7.28 9.05 7.14 7.20 7.19 7.22 10.32 10.37 10.43 10.44 5.58 5.61 5.50 5.49 6.58 6.47 6.46 6.43 5.52 5.55 5.52 5.40 Volume Per Buyer Home Market Stable The date above shows the home market retail performance for the 52 weeks ending November 9th in comparison to the previous year as well as the quarter ending November 14th 2014. Annual pork and sausage prices were up marginally and sales of pork were marginally down with sausage volumes continuing to improve in sales. Overall the positon was relatively stable. Bacon value and volume sales increased very marginally in the last quarter. IFA are informed by secondary processors that they have not received reductions in prices for the products they buy from Irish processors. We are also aware that there has been an increase in Total Chicken the volume of Average price per imported product KG but based on the Total Meat increased volTotal Beef ume of Bord Bia approved product Total Pork on the retail Total Lamb shelves it appears, this is not Sausages finding its way to Total Bacon retail in any maTotal Chicken jor way and therefore must be getting soaked up by butchers and the food service industry. IFA have carried out a round of DNA testing in this area and results are imminent, however the organisation is investing in a large volume of testing in the coming weeks focusing on a number of secondary processors and we will be checking both quality assured and non quality assured products. The results of this testing will be published. kets to providing more clarity on pig prices and any farmer that is speaking with a TD should raise the plight of the As you can see from the table below, substantially. The only other countries Irish exports in the first 10 months of of any significance that reduced volumes pig farmers and highlight the importance 2014 performed very well with volumes from Ireland were Germany, Northern of the industry. exported up by 12% (the value of these Ireland and Hong Kong with increases exports was up by 9%). recorded in the majority of our major Gross Indigenous Production markets including the USA and mainland Russia in 2013 accounted for 17kt There has been some talk that there is a China. (12.5%) of exported Irish product but huge increase in pig numbers, although this volume was covered by increased in We are asking the Minister to take a numbers are up on 2013 for the full year Japan, South Korea and the Philippians more proactive role in all elements of we are behind the numbers that were whose volumes from Ireland were up the pig industry from opening more mar- killed in 2012. Irish Exports still booming Year ROI NI total 2011 2,758,557 601,695 3,360,252 2012 2,799,359 621,299 3,420,658 2013 2,731,267 571,253 3,302,520 2014 2,871,404 529,077 3,400,481 Quantity Partner Country Increasing production numbers was an aim of the Food Harvest 2020 Strategy that has driven on export volumes— farmers should not be penalised for being better at their jobs. We are highlighting this to the Minister particularly in light of the new Agri Food Strategy that is currently being compiled. % Share % Change Unit 2012 2013 2014 2012 2013 2014 2014/2013 World T 138458 136334 152719 100.00 100.00 100.00 12.02 United Kingdom T 54284 53370 57833 39.21 39.15 37.87 8.36 China T 19311 19506 23163 13.95 14.31 15.17 18.75 Denmark T 6705 5381 10974 4.84 3.95 7.19 103.95 Germany T 10263 11209 9842 7.41 8.22 6.44 - 12.20 Japan T 3680 1358 9270 2.66 1.00 6.07 582.71 Northern Ireland T 6224 6551 6192 4.50 4.81 4.05 - 5.49 Philippines T 942 1387 5400 0.68 1.02 3.54 289.20 Korea South T 851 680 5104 0.61 0.50 3.34 650.72 United States T 3216 2906 4346 2.32 2.13 2.85 49.55 Sweden T 2813 3466 3692 2.03 2.54 2.42 6.53 Belgium T 2228 2226 2436 1.61 1.63 1.59 9.41 Hong Kong T 2740 2490 2302 1.98 1.83 1.51 - 7.58 Italy T 1279 1216 1956 0.92 0.89 1.28 60.91 France T 1931 1586 1791 1.39 1.16 1.17 12.92 Australia T 0 947 1490 0.00 0.69 0.98 57.33 Russia T 11401 17148 1300 8.23 12.58 0.85 - 92.42 Netherlands T 1807 710 765 1.31 0.52 0.50 7.81 IFA National Pigs & Pig meat Committee 2015-2016 Mr Pat O'Flaherty 0872568337 [email protected] Mr Howard McCollum 0866185572 [email protected] Mr Michael Maguire 0868240300 [email protected] Mr Brian Brady 0868517009 [email protected] Mr Brendan Doherty 0868291444 [email protected] Mr Michael McDonnell 0862589968 [email protected] Mr Donal Brady 0872589511 [email protected] Mr Vincent Conefrey 0862240062 [email protected] Mr Joe Healy 0872511277 [email protected] Mr Colin Marry 0872488792 [email protected] Mr Paul Tully 0862310041 [email protected] Ms Rose Fryday 0862548485 [email protected] Mr Ber Gilsenan 0872700245 Mr Tom Sherman 0868338413 [email protected] Mr Tom Hogan 0872658637 [email protected] Mr Richie Norton 0864136003 [email protected] Mr John Ryan 0862528329 [email protected] Mr Dick Kingston 0872681602 [email protected] Mr Colm Ryan 0879620306 [email protected] Mr Roy Gallie 0868242009 [email protected] Mr David Tyndall 0868790233 [email protected] Mr Oliver Leddy 0863817650 [email protected] Mr Con O'Kelly 0862579056 [email protected] Mr Michael O'Doherty 0876526662 [email protected] Mr Philip O'Brien 0868237676 [email protected] If you have queries or comments on anything contained in this newsletter or the work of the committee, please do not hesitate to contact any of the committee members.
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