Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) sheep chair Adrian Gallagher has criticised factory moves to pull lamb prices, which he said is destroying farmers’ confidence in the sector.

Gallagher called for a reversal of these recent price reductions to take quotes to a level reflective of farmgate costs of production in a challenging year for farming.

“It has been an extremely difficult year lambing ewes, with enormous weather challenges contributing to increased costs and losses encountered,” the IFA chair commented.

He stated that retailers are quick to sell lamb to consumers on the back of the environmental credentials of Irish sheep farmers, but are equally as quick to source cheaper imported lamb to maintain their own margins.

Transparency

“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.

The IFA is to seek sheep supports in Budget 2025 of €30/ewe, inclusive of the CAP’s Sheep Improvement Scheme.

This, Gallagher said, is vital for Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue to bring forward to bolster farmer confidence in the sheep sector.