Irish Farmers' Association Pigs Committee chairman, Pat O'Keeffe, said that Irish prices continued unchanged, at between EUR1.38 (93p) and EUR1.45 (98p)/kg. "Supply is tight with throughput down 4.2 per cent year to date.'' Mr O'Keeffe said the European Union average price for April 2006 was 7.9 per cent higher than in April 2005, compared to an Irish increase of 5.7 per cent.

"This is a clear indication Irish pig farmers are not getting a fair return from the processors based on current market returns,'' said Mr O'Keeffe. The IFA pigs chairman said pigmeat and live pig exports were worth in excess of EUR320 million (£218 million to the Republic of Ireland country.

And he warned that, unless the issues of regulations, lack of technical and advisory backup and poor profitability in the Irish industry were addressed, "the same devastating results as experienced by the British industry, which saw sow numbers drop from 800,000 in 1997 to 441,000 in December 2005 will be experienced here''.

This would equate to Irish sow numbers dropping from 155,000 to approximately 78,000 at which point the entire industry would be unsustainable. There was a responsibility on all involved to ensure this did not happen.

Source: Farming Life