Sir, – Pork and bacon have long been staples of our diets, with consumption per capita reaching over 30kg per person.
However, Irish pork and bacon may soon be a thing of the past. The current price we are receiving as farmers for our pigs is ¤1.72 a kilogramme; the current break-even price is at least ¤2.30 a kilogramme.
For a pig farmer like myself, this means my farms are losing over ¤60,000 every week at the moment (based on each pig making a loss of over ¤50). Our feed costs have catapulted in recent months, escalated by the war in Ukraine.
The price of pigmeat has increased in shops, but we are only receiving 12 per cent of the value, despite the care we give to that pig at the highest standards for six months.
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A decision today by a farmer to get out of business means it will be nine months before the farm is empty. Yet the money we are all haemorrhaging on farms at the moment means most of us only have a few weeks left before we completely run out of money and are unable to feed our animals.
As a small sector with less than 200 farmers, we punch above our weight, contributing ¤1 billion to the national economy and coming third in agri output terms after dairy and beef.
Will the processors, retailers and Government allow Irish pork and bacon to become extinct or are they going to help us survive? – Yours,etc,
SHANE McAULIFFE,
Kerry.
