Poultry growers stage protest to demand fairer price

Poultry farmers staged a protest outside a Shercock poultry processors this afternoon to highlight the plight of producers, and the failure of retailers and processors to pay them a price that covers their costs and gives them a margin to live on.

IFA National Poultry Chairman Alo Mohan, who attended the protest at Carton Bros in Shercock, said, 'We have to highlight the difficulties on poultry farms. The situation is so serious on some poultry farms that soon they will have no option but to close their doors indefinitely. This will result in chicken being sourced from countries which do not meet our standards, and jobs and economic activity will be lost.

'Customers of Irish chicken, in the retail and processing sector, must now address this issue urgently for poultry meat and eggs. All that is required to secure the future of Irish chicken is 7c/bird and 1c/egg passed from retailer directly back to producer. At present, farmers get as little as 35c per bird and 10c per egg.' 

He added, 'In general, Irish supermarkets carry a large quantity of Bord Bia Quality Assured Chicken, but producers have not secured any increase to cover increased costs of production. Input prices have rocketed and although the processors have received some increase through the chain, the farmer has received nothing at all. This is causing severe hardship on farms.'