Are we sacrificing farmers?

This uncertainty not only affects farmers but also agricultural contractors and a whole range of ancillary businesses and industries on which farmers rely. It never ceases to amaze me that our policy makers can allow this situation to continue or maybe I am being naive. Maybe it’s part of a cunning plan (as Blackadder would say) to sacrifice farmers and their families on the altar of inflation. Put simply, the cost of food to the consumer is being kept artificially low and farmers are paying the price. If farmers were given a fair farmgate price for their produce the food supply chain would not absorb the price increase, as farmers are expected to do. No, they will increase the price to the consumer resulting in a big jump in inflation, which would trigger demands for increased wages, sparking panic in the corridors of power.

Denis Drennan, president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association, said recently that the price received by farmers hasn’t increased in line with inflation. What farmers received40 years ago for milk, if index-linked, would mean they’d currently be receiving 70c/L, instead of the 50c/L they now get – if even that. He was also emphatic that farmers can no longer absorb price increases in their overheads. So, with farmers heavily subsidising food production, why are we seeing massive consumer prices increases?

Journalist, Cian McCormack recently published the results of an experiment comparing the price of the same items between 2021 and today. Shopping receipts were kept and used to support the results. The exercise showed an average overall price increase of 36 per cent; however, the items that showed the biggest increase were those described as staple foods where price increases are astronomical; milk by 64 per cent (26 per cent in one year), butter by 70 per cent, potatoes by 52 per cent, cheese by 50 per cent, along with items like cauliflower by 40 per cent, and red peppers by 128 per cent, and that is only the tip of the iceberg. These finding are supported by Central Statistics Office data. My question to our policymakers is why is it acceptable for the food supply chain to pass on any increased costs but farmers cannot?

In my humble opinion farmers are being bought off with, what is effectively, the crumbs from the table; a few subsidies or machinery grants rather than dealing with the fundamental problem of farm incomes. These incomes are so poor that we are seeing a total lack of interest from the next generation of farmers. It should be remembered that having sound farming enterprises is the cornerstone of Ireland’s vital agriculture-based exports, which are worth more than €18bn. 

Uncharted waters

Ireland is sailing into uncharted waters with the new world order under the Trump administration. It’s hard to see any logic in the plethora of tariffs emanating from the White House, many of which will harm the US economy and workforce. However, in Ireland we are not only vulnerable to tariffs imposed on us as members of the European Union, but we are also vulnerable in the pharmaceutical industry where US multinational companies export expensive drugs and ingredients to the US. These and other companies may have used Ireland to avoid higher taxes in the US, but they are significant contributors to Ireland’s economy and employment rate, and they are now in the line of fire from the Trump administration. This, along with an increasing trade deficit with the US, means we are heading into very uncertain economic times, which will affect us all and put more pressure on our agricultural sector.