Producers are losing up to €3,500 a week due to escalating feed costs - facts that were reiterated at a recent meeting of Cavan county council when the chairman of the IFA`s National Pig Committee, Michael Maguire called for immediate urgent action to ease the situation.

A report in regional newspaper Anglo-Celt said that feed costs have gone up by 30 per cent in recent months while pig producers are also suffering a price reduction of 5 per cent in the market place.

Around 20 per cent of Ireland's the national herd is in Co Cavan, with 65 pig units operating in the county - representing 30,000 sows and producing 660,000 pigs, annually.

"It is a big contributor to the local economy, being worth about §70m per annum and at a conservative estimate there are 1,500 people employed in the pigmeat sector and associated businesses," Michael Maguire told councilors.

He believed Cavan's producers are currently incurring,losses in the region of €250,000 a week. The IFA is trying to help Irish pig producers to increase their share of the home market which is taking in 60,000 tonnes of imported pig meat.

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