February 20, 2004

Irish Pig Association Calls For Reduced Feed Prices

The Irish Farmers' Association National Pigs Committee chairman, Pat O'Keeffe, has called for lower pig and poultry feed prices in the country as wheat and barley prices were already greatly reduced over the past month.

"The main import market for cereals from an Irish point of view is the GB market. The ex-farm price for feed wheat in GB fell by EUR17.70 (£11.96), to EUR139.10 (£94.06) per tonne over the past five to six weeks, while the ex-farm price for feed barley fell by EUR14.90 (£10.07), to EUR124.60 (£84.25) per tonne over the same period,'' said Mr O'Keeffee.

"Within the protein market, Chicago futures quoted soya bean deliveries for the March to May period recently weakened by EUR16 (£10.81), to EUR195 (£131.86) per tonne. Soya is the main protein ingredient in Pig and Poultry diets."

He said that the market for cereals in Ireland over the past five to six week period was down EUR5-EUR6 (£3.38-£4.05), to EUR170 (£117.30) per tonne for wheat and down EUR4-EUR5 (£2.70-£3.38), to EUR165 (£109.54) per tonne for barley.

"This reduction has not matched the United Kingdom reduction and indicates that traders are tactically, but foolishly, holding stocks," he claimed.

"Grass growth is well ahead of normal this spring and one major feed miller has already cut back production due to reduced demand.

"This action in the animal feed supply trade strongly indicates an early start to the grazing season for cows and cattle, which, in turn, will put further downward pressure on feed raw material prices.

"It is now clearly evident that feed prices have peaked and the time for price reduction has arrived.

"When you combine the fact of significant weakening in cereal and soya prices with the prospect of an early spring there is a very strong case for an immediate reduction in Pig and Poultry feed costs."