‘There’s something wrong when a farmer can’t make a living from 100 acres of land’
PADRAIC Gilligan believes beef prices started to tumble when the “foreign supermarkets” arrived in Ireland.
“They wanted a share of the market and to get it they started cutting the prices of vegetables and meat — and this is where it ended up,” he says of the ongoing prices crisis which sparked recent farmer protests.
“The farmer is paying for it indirectly and it is so sad that a farmer cannot make a living on 100 acres of land now”.
His son Alan says there has been a lot of procrastination about below-cost selling “but nothing has ever been done about it”.
Padraic says they see it from both sides and are always aware when they go to meet a potential client that that person will be looking for the best price they can get.
Balance
“If you go to meet someone new, of course they want to get best price they can get but they also appreciate quality and it is about striking a balance.
“The market will only pay what the market is going to pay,” he says.
With 80,000 beef farmers in the country, Padraic reckons farmers will have a better chance of surviving if they can find a niche selling point .
“I think they have to figure out a way to have a point of difference something like we have,” he says.
Going organic might be the best route for some farmers in the west, and might lead to a better price for a less intensive system, he says.
“But the reality is we export nine out of every 10 cattle we produce here. We are heavily reliant on export markets,” he points out.
Alan says the protests are an illustration of how hard-pressed many farmers feel, after a lifetime of working hard on the land.
“It was very sad to see people who should be retiring and thinking of the next stage of their lives having to do that,” he says.