| Speaking after a meeting of the IFA Retail Project Team in Dublin, IFA President John Bryan said that farm gate prices have to increase by at least 15% to reflect escalating production costs this year. He said that farm gate prices will have to increase significantly to cover the internationally-driven increases in fuel, feed and fertiliser since the beginning of the year. John Bryan said farmers had no capacity to absorb these cost increases and that there was mounting anger among farmers as processors and retailers hold on to their margins, adding to the inequity in the food supply chain. Mr Bryan said, “Farmers have been left with a smaller percentage of the consumer price, getting as little as 20% of the final price of many food products on retailer shelves. This is no longer sustainable.” The IFA President said based on CSO national figures, average farm incomes in 2010 were estimated to be €16,000. Clearly there is no capacity for farm families to carry these increased production costs. Concluding, Mr Bryan called on processors and retailers to treat farmers with respect and deal effectively with the reality of rising costs by returning viable prices to producers. |
Friday, 25 March 2011 13:54