Sheep farmers are under extreme financial pressure at the present time, and the very future of the sector in Ireland is being threatened through excessive lamb price cutting by both the retailers and the factories.
That’s the firm belief of Padraig Walsh the president of the IFA who told the Kilkenny Advertiser/Carlow First on Tuesday that"some prices are as low as €3.50 per kg which amounts to only €73 a lamb. That is the same price as twenty years ago which is ridiculous."
Mr Walsh also said that "by cutting prices of lamb to these unacceptably low levels, factories and supermarkets are destroying the viability of sheep farming while threatening the very future of the Irish sheep sector."
He is of the opinion that factories could easily afford to lift lamb prices by at least €10 per head or 50 cents a kg without impacting on their margins or consumer prices."
The IFA president also revealed that his farm organisation had recently compiled a survey which clearly indicated that farmers are not receiving a fair share of the lamb price chain.
He went on to say that the survey was carried out in August involving the four main supermarket chains."This survey clearly shows that lamb is making an average of €284 in retail sales across the counter.
Taking account of the farmgate price, this return provides a gross mark-up before costs of over €200 per lamb. Based on these figures both the factories and the retailers could easily afford to increase lamb pricxes by at least €10 per lamb," he said.
Padraig Walsh also said that with the rising costs of fertiliser, fuel, and feed the current price situation is becoming more difficult for sheep producers.
"These input increases have added at least another 50 cents to the cost of lamb production It is little wonder then that Professor Frank Crosby of UCD has produced figures to show that lamb prices would need to be at least €4.34 per kg just for farmers to break even."
He concluded by saying that through the excessive and totally unecessary price cuts, factories and the retailers are eating into the Single Farm Payment on sheep farms and this position is just not sustainable going forward."
