Sir, - Earlier this month Irish farmers, including a substantial number of pig producers, protested at collapsing incomes outside the Department of Agriculture and Food. We should ask why.
How many of your readers are aware that the pig farmer crisis arises because a very large portion of the pork and bacon on sale:
is imported unmarked with no country of origin stamp;
has no visible veterinary control number;
is cut to standard size and sold loose or vacuum-packed;
has no brand or producer name.
In addition, last month frozen Far-Eastern chicken fillets reboxed in the EU saw sale, unboxed, in Ireland.
If imports from countries with a different standard flood this country, what point is there in the Department of Agriculture and Food implementing strict standards for producers and processors and having a 100 per cent deflocking policy if a herd or flock (whether beef, pigs or poultry) develops a disease problem?
How many of your readers as consumers support unstintingly the Food Safety Authority's stated policy on standards and traceability of produce but do not know that food products entering Ireland from any other EU country cannot be tested at the point of importation, even though the exporting country has a different policy on control of disease or different hygiene or production standards?
Every Irish shopper is entitled to know, as they place a product in their shopping trolley, what is its provenance and if imported what the disease control policy and production standards of the exporting country is, what specific region of the exporting country produced it and what other industries exist in or near the production units which may affect its quality.
If as a consumer you believe in Irish products on which there is full traceability, use the power of your punts to buy a branded Irish product displaying an Irish veterinary control number and leave the rest alone.
Finally, I acknowledge that, while I am an interested consumer who won't knowingly buy imported meat, I am not, as those who know me will attest, disinterested in the food industry. It, like west Cork, is part of what I am. - Yours, etc., Phil O'Regan,
Market Street,
Skibbereen,
Co Cork.