Poultry farmers have taken part in protest outside Lidl supermarkets in counties Cavan and Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland over chicken and egg prices.
Lidl has been under fire for running a promotion from 13 January which reduced the price of a large chicken from €4.29 to €3.49.
The protest, which continued through the night, voiced that current prices for eggs and chickens were unsustainable for poultry farmers and suppliers.
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“Some retailers have recognised the very severe income difficulties at the moment and they have increased the price of chicken on the shelf,” Irish Farmers Association (IFA) poultry committee chairman Andy Boylan said.
“Yet, Lidl has pulled the price, which shows the complete disregard they have for producers.”
Boylan cited the government’s inaction on retail legislation as an underlying cause for the situation, stating, “unless we have a robust regulation of retailers, we will see more and more farmers going to the wall.”
The news comes as Ireland faces 14-year high inflation rates with animal feed costs rising 36% on last year.
The Poultry Committee’s vice chairman Brendan Soden has expressed farmers were very concerned about their future as Irish egg costs dropped by 8.4% despite the EU average price of eggs increasing by 13.2% in the last year.
Boylan added: “Without an immediate increase in the wholesale retail price, to be passed back to egg and chicken producers, the entire sector is in jeopardy,”
“We produce top quality, Bord Bia QA produce, at prices which are not sustainable. We intend to highlight the absolute necessity for our costs to be recovered from the food chain immediately.”
Lidl has stated it swallows the cost of all promotional items and that the supplier receives the contracted price.
The discount retailer has welcomed independent reviews into the matter as it “cannot disclose prices paid to suppliers to any third party”.
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