‘This is an unusual time and unusual times need great remedies’

MEETING Pig sector seeks €100m in support from minister

Pig farmers are seeking an injection of €100m into the sector as units across the country face closure. IFA stressed the magnitude of the crisis during a meeting with Minister Charlie McConalogue in Cavan Town on Thursday.

The sector, which is concentrated in Counties Cavan, Monaghan and Cork, has been haemorrhaging money in recent months.

“In the last two weeks it [the scale of losses] has increased phenomenally,” said Sarah Hanley, as she awaited the minister’s arrival at the door of the Digital Hub on the Dublin Road. Sarah is the IFA pig and poultry executive who possesses the grim figures explaining the sense of desperation her colleagues brought to the table.

“Teagasc is forecasting for the month of March that the losses per pig is €40.10c. It’s phenomenal money we’re talking about here,” adds Sarah.

As such, pork farmers who are inured to lurching from crisis to crisis, are increasingly being forced to cut their losses. Stage one of closure sees them deciding against having their sows inseminated.

“There’s somewhere between 7,000 and 10,000 sows being taken out of production in 13 different units,” outlined Sarah.

A trio of factors have conspired to create the current problem, according to Mountnugent pig farmer Michael Caffrey: Brexit has sliced 50% of demand for Irish pork from the UK market; Covid hampered the processing of pork; and now the war in Ukraine has resulted in grain prices jumping by over 100% in one month. Grain that cost €230/t just a month ago is now costing 430/t and soya has likewise jumped from €380/t to €630/t. The mills have flagged a further price rise of €70/t in April for feed.

The Celt asks when they need a response from the minister on their request?

“Yesterday,” retorts Michael Caffrey without a hint of mirth. “You have 13 men there, who if the response came, probably wouldn’t close - they’re committed.”

Their request for support comes less than a month after the minister vowed €7m in funding for the beleaguered sector; the €20,000 per farmer began to hit accounts last week.

“It’s appreciated, but in the full scheme of things, it’s not going to keep us there. We need big help now,” says the Mountnugent pig farmer, who notes they don’t have access to any of the CAP funds. “This is an unusual time and unusual times need great remedies. This is what we need now: we need a great remedy.”

The €100m is sought as a funding grant of €50m and a short term loan of €50m. Even with a commitment to pay back half upon the recovery of the market, it is still an eye-watering sum to put before the minister the Celt observes.

“It is a serious amount of money,” acknowledges Michael. “But when you think of where the pig industry is, the third highest agricultural exporter in the country and we have produce of over €900m – so that’s the industry that will at least half if something is not done.”

Jobs

Bord Bia’s figures for 2021, support Michael’s point as pork exports are worth €944m. When the domestic market is included the entire sector swells to €1.7b in value. He notes that it’s not just pig farmers and their staff, but also abattoirs, mills, hauliers and vets who depend, to varying degrees, upon a healthy pork sector - 8,000 jobs in total.

Entering the meeting, Minister McConalogue was empathetic to their plight.

“It has been a difficult number of months. Over the course of the end of last year and the start of this year we have seen inflationary pressures in relation to energy but particularly in relation to grain prices – they had got much higher since the harvest last autumn, so it already was a challenging situation. Now since the war in Ukraine that has been exacerbated because of the impact on grain prices. Grain is a big proportion of overheads and costs of pig production.”

Like Michael, the minister was hopeful that an upturn in the pork market is on the horizon, noting some EU countries had seen “significant enough increases in price”.

“I would expect to see that represented in the Irish market and unfortunately we have not seen that yet,” said the Fianna Fáil man.

What of the IFA’s request for €100m?

“I just received their proposal last Wednesday evening. I have asked my team in the Department to assess it and review it,” replied the minister.

The fact that it’s partially a loan must give it a chance, the Celt urged.

“As a Department we are assessing the proposal put forward. I’m conscious of the pressure the sector is under and I want to work with it to support it through this period, but importantly we need to see the uptake in the market at European level – that feed through and be represented in relation to prices here too.”