€2 per Kg Following IFA Campaign for a Pig Price Increase
The IFA Pigs Committee has been campaigning nationally to secure increases in the pig price for farmers who have been haemorrhaging massive financial losses for almost a year now.
IFA Pigs Committee Chair Roy Gallie said some farmers are now receiving quotes of €2/kg from a number of processing plants on the island of Ireland.
“Those processors who are not paying €2/kg must do so this week. The situation is critical at farm level given the financial losses that have accumulated,” he said.
“I would encourage all farmers to keep pressure on those primary processors who are lagging for a further increase this week to get to €2/kg, which is now available,” he said.
Roy Gallie pointed out that €2/kg is far from break-even. Farmers are still losing between €35-€40 per pig sold. Further increases must be delivered back to farmers from the marketplace, calling it a ‘fork to farm strategy’.
“We hear a lot about the EU ‘farm to fork’ plan, but pig farmers need more money to come from the fork back to the farm,” he said.
The IFA Pigs Committee has held numerous protests over the past number of months to achieve the increase in pig price from a low of €1.42/kg to €2.00/kg today.
