It appears that support packages for the pig sector will only cover losses for April and May 2022. The Irish Farmers’ Association has asserted that it is “disappointed” with the lack of understanding” of the severity of the current situation. According to IFA pig committee vice-chairman William Murphy, the IFA went to Government looking for an aid package to support farmers for the year, and what has been put on the table is “a long way off the mark”.
Under the Governments approved a €13m EU exceptional aid package for commercial pig farmers, they will be eligible for a maximum payment of €70,000 per undertaking. This supplements the €7m exchequer-funded scheme, with payments of up to €20,000 per undertaking, which was announced last month by Agriculture minister Charlie McConalogue.
Teagasc economists show that an estimated loss on an average (600-sow) farm so far for 2022 was over €160,000. The IFA’s William Murphy told a recent meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine that it is important to remember that as “drastic” as the current situation is for the industry, it is “short-term”.
And that “Teagasc predict early next year that we would be back in a profit-making situation. But we’ll be hopeful that might come a bit sooner,” Mr Murphy said.
IFA president Tim Cullinan told the committee that he is “very confident there will be market upturn. We’re at the point now where this industry is ready to turn, and it’s about getting funding to get us through this cycle. We’re coming near the end of the cycle and I think that’s critical.”
However, Mr Cullinan said that “we are seeing 7% to 10% of farmers exited already”, and that there is a “real concern we could see anything up to 30% of farmers exiting this sector”.
Mr Cullinan also called on the processing sector to be part of the survival of the pig sector.
He said that the IFA is “disappointed” with the “lack of understanding” of the severity of the current situation that Government has shown.
“We have failed to address the whole situation with the level of money that’s been offered,” Mr Murphy added.