Relentless Cuts to Lamb Prices by Factories Must Stop – IFA

IFA Sheep chair Adrian Gallagher said factories are destroying confidence in the sheep sector and undermining sheep markets by constantly cutting lamb prices.  

It has been an extremely difficult year lambing ewes, with enormous weather challenges contributing to increased costs and losses encountered,” he said. 

Mr. Gallagher said that the processing sector must do more to reflect the actual cost of lamb production on farmers by being stronger with retailers. He slammed retailers saying that they are very quick to speak about their green credentials but will undermine local farmers by importing cheaper produce from outside the EU to benefit their own margins.  

“The Agri Food Regulator has a serious job of work to do to provide sheep farmers with full transparency in the supply chain. Sheep farmers have seen prices cut by over 20% in the past few weeks, but product on shelves hasn’t changed to this extent, if at all,” he said. 

Adrian Gallagher also reminded the Minister for Agriculture about the importance of direct support for sheep farmers and their incomes following the severity and speed at which prices have been cut recently.  

He highlighted the vulnerability of the sheep farming industry as a low-income sector with little capacity to deal with the price cuts experienced recently. He emphasised the need for strong meaningful action which will be vital for the support of farmers still lambing ewes in the sector.  

He then focused his attention on calling the Minister for Agriculture to extend the Sheep Welfare Scheme into 2025 and to provide additional funding to bring total payments per ewe to €30 combined with the Sheep Improvement Scheme.