Why the Irish chicken industry is taking a battering

Cappoquin Chickens is the latest poultry company to close its doors. Rising costs have been a factor, but a loophole in the law means cheap foreign birds could be masquerading as Irish-raised stock

THE TROUBLE at Cappoquin Chickens in Co Waterford, which is struggling for survival after going into liquidation last week, can be traced, in part, back to the humble pre-packaged chicken sandwich.

Consumers looking for a quick hunger-fix may give little thought to where the chicken in the sandwich came from, but according to food writer and restaurateur Domini Kemp, this is one less-than-appetising scenario.

Kemp maintains the sandwich-bound chicken may start life in Thailand, before being transported to mainland Europe where it is cooked and pumped full of tasty chemicals (the "chicken" in some sandwiches contains more than 10 ingredients) before being packaged in an Irish factory some weeks later.

"I couldn't believe it when I read the back of the label of a sandwich my husband picked up at Dublin Airport recently," says Kemp who owns a bagel chain which currently serves both more expensive free-range Irish chicken bagels, and a cheaper imported chicken option sourced in the EU and cooked on the premises.

"There were around 40 ingredients in the sandwich and 13 of those were in the chicken. That's hideous, but Irish people want to eat chicken, and this way it is cheap."

Thailand? South America? The Netherlands? Who knows? When it comes to traceability it's virtually impossible for consumers of chicken in restaurants, convenience stores and large institutions, including hospitals, across the State to know exactly where their chicken-based meals or snacks originated.

What is increasingly unlikely is that the "chicken" in the sandwich came from Cappoquin, or any other food producer on this island.

According to Patrick Wall, head of the European Food Safety Authority, all the chicken pieces for the Irish food service sector, everything from Chinese outlets to the chicken in ready meals, are imported.

He puts the current crisis in the Irish chicken industry - the situation at Cappoquin follows three recent closures in the poultry sector - down to high production costs, among other factors.

"Ireland cannot compete with Brazil and Thailand where they have economies of scale and much cheaper feed - plus access to genetically-modified feed not approved in the EU - less onerous environmental legislation and cheaper labour," says Wall.

"The killer blow for Cappoquin has been the dramatic increase in the price of feed, precipitated by the fact that 20 per cent of the grain-growing land is now devoted to crops for biofuel which has driven up the price of feed. Add to this the rise in the cost of energy to keep the broiler houses warm, costs not needed in hotter climates, and what you are left with is Irish operators in trouble".

The vast majority of whole chickens available in supermarkets - most feature Bord Bia's Quality Assurance stamp - can be traced back to Ireland or, more usually, Northern Ireland. ("Look for the logo," is Bord Bia's advice.)

Even so, Ned Morrissey of the Irish Farmers' Association says he is still concerned about Irish consumers being duped into buying "Irish" due to a labelling loophole known as "substantial transformation".

"Imported chicken produce just needs to be covered in breadcrumbs in Ireland for it to be deemed Irish," he says.

"I would encourage consumers to demand Republic of Ireland chicken which has been produced for the Irish consumer. The taxpayer is paying for the stringent regulations that are applied to the industry by the Department of Agriculture, so the consumer should benefit from these regulations by buying Irish".

The largest producer of Bord Bia approved chicken on this Island is Moy Park in Dungannon, Co Armagh, which produces 1.3 million birds a week. Sales and marketing manager Paul Burch says all their whole chickens originate within 100km of their processing plant.

"Anything under the Moy Park brand comes from Irish chicken," he says.

Previously owned by an American company, Moy Park is in the process of being taken over by a Brazilian outfit. They do, Burch confirms, import chicken from non-EU countries such as Brazil. This usually ends up in ready meals and frozen breaded chicken products on supermarket shelves.

Elsewhere, there is talk of some independent retailers and butchers in the State being partly to blame for the ill-health of the Irish chicken industry by buying up cheap chicken of dubious origin.

One industry insider called this the "white-van syndrome".

"You have a number of wholesalers who bring in Dutch or other cheap chicken and hawk it around in the back of vans in brown boxes. The retailers just ask two questions, 'How much did it cost and where did it come from?' and you will often find it passed off as Irish chicken," he says.

But back to pre-packaged chicken sandwiches - Kemp has some salutary advice for Irish consumers on their lunch break.

"If you examine a label and find the chicken has been treated with chemical gunk to bulk up what is probably already shoddy raw ingredients then I would say have a cheese sandwich instead."