IFA Will Attend Independent Ireland Mercosur Protest in Athlone

IFA President Francie Gorman said IFA will take up the invitation to attend and speak at the Independent Ireland Mercosur protest in Athlone next Sat, Jan 10th.

“We would strongly encourage farmers to attend next Saturday to convey their opposition to Mercosur. It is a massive issue and we need a united front,” he said. 

“The December 18th protest in Brussels, organised by the EU farm representative body COPA and its member organisations including IFA, was crucial in ensuring the postponement of the Member State vote intended for that day. However, there is still huge pressure on from the EU Commission and certain Member States to ratify the deal as soon as next week,” he said.

“It is vital that our Government lives up to its commitment in the Programme for Government to work with like-minded countries to block the deal. The so-called ‘safeguards’ are only a fig leaf. They do not change the substance of this deal,” he said.

“Member State ambassadors are due to meet on Friday. The IFA office in Brussels is monitoring developments by the hour and we would be concerned that there may be an attempt at this meeting to ratify the deal,” he said.

“This is something we are actively discussing in conjunction with COPA and our farm organisation counterparts in countries who are opposed to Mercosur,” he said.

“An EU blocking minority requires four countries that make up at least 35% of the population of the EU. Ireland has about 1% of the EU population so maintaining opposition in countries such as France (c. 15%), Italy (c. 13%), Poland (c. 8%), Hungary (c. 2%) and Austria (c. 2%) is vital. The Irish Government cannot block this on their own, but they can work with others to maintain the blocking minority,” he said.

The IFA and the Farmers Journal undertook an investigation in Brazil two months ago which showed that antibiotics are freely available for purchase without the need to show a prescription and that there are no effective control systems in Brazil.

IFA also highlighted that Brazilian beef was recently recalled from 12 different EU countries due the presence of illegal hormones. This followed an audit in Brazil in 2024 which showed a lack of controls on the use of hormones in beef exported to the EU.

The investigation clearly reinforces the public health risk associated with importing beef and poultry from Brazil into the EU.