Farmers react as poultry retail price war intensifies

IFA Poultry Chair Nigel Sweetnam said farmers will not tolerate any reduction in the margin they receive, as the retail price wars intensify.

“Supermarkets are demanding premium product at world commodity prices with little or no regard to producers’ or processors’ costs of production, which are still substantially higher than the last time we were in negotiations. We have to be paid properly,” he said.

Any reduction in farmers margins will inevitably lead to farmers going out of business, as has already happened in the vegetable selector.

“It will not be tolerated. We will take whatever steps are required to ensure the survival of family farms that are producing quality, affordable and healthy food in the most sustainable manner,” he said.

“At a time of increasing costs, it is neither realistic nor acceptable to ask farmers to work for nothing, particularly as poultry farmers have such huge investments in buildings and facilities,” he said.

Meanwhile, reacting more generally to retail price food wars, the president of the IFA, Tim Cullinan said farmers would be very sceptical about the latest publicity blitz by some retailers claiming to champion consumers with lower prices.

“If the retailers want to engage in combat for customers, it cannot be at the expense of farmers and producers. The idea that primary producers can afford to take a lower price fly in the face of higher input costs. The food chain cannot survive if relentless pressure is piled on those who produce the food,” he said.

The IFA president warned against the chasing of cheap headlines in the pursuit of market share. “It costs money to deliver quality food to supermarket shelves. This has to be recognised by giving a fair margin to those who put in the work and investment on the ground. Pretending that it can be done for less is not serving anybody,” he said.

He said targeting fresh food is just too easy an option that retailers have to avoid. “Retailers know that consumers go shopping for food, but farmers and producers cannot be in the frontline of another retail war. Retailers cannot use their dominant position in the food chain to reduce farmers margins while protecting their own. This imbalance in power in our food supply chain is something that the new Agri-Food Regulator must investigate and act upon,” he concluded.