Farm income will fall by 10 per cent this year, taking the drop in earnings during the last two years to 17 per cent, the president of the Irish Farmers' Association said yesterday.
Accusing the Government of not recognising the depth of the recession in agriculture, Mr Tom Parlon said while other sectors argued about how much they should be paid, income for farmers continued to shrink. He said the 1999 income figures showed an average price reduction of more than 4 per cent for produce while farmers increased output by about 2.5 per cent.
"Virtually all farmers are getting less for the product. They are producing more and they are facing increased costs and a substantial reduction in the value of direct payments," he said.
Mr Parlon said that at the end of last year, because of bad weather, the Government brought forward some EU payments from early 1999. This had improved the 1998 figures by about 4 per cent but had cut this year's figure by the same amount.
"However, the simple matter is that over the two years, the total reduction is the same, a loss of about 14 per cent in money terms, 17.5 per cent in real terms after inflation," said Mr Parlon.
He said the overall figures hid deep problems in the different sectors. In the cattle sector, which accounts for one-third of farm output, prices fell by a further 5.5 per cent.
"The sector has never recovered from the UK BSE crisis and prices this year are more than 25 per cent below their levels in 1995 before that crisis broke," he said.
The sheep sector was also being undermined by low prices and depressed incomes. Lamb prices had fallen by 21 per cent in the past two years and were 24 per cent lower than at the beginning of this decade.
Pig producers had been losing money for the past two years. Prices fell by a further 10 per cent this year and were now 30 per cent below the 1997 level. Losses at the average pig producing unit stood at £75,000. Mr Con Lucey, the IFA's economist, said the average industrial wage had increased by about 25 per cent over the same period and the public service pay bill had increased by 50 per cent since 1995.
In contrast, he said, national farm income was about 18 per cent lower than in 1995 and even a moderate recovery next year would not improve the situation.
Mr Parlon said low prices were driving farming families to desperation and most could not survive without off-farm income.
He called on the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, to demonstrate the Government's commitment to farming by meeting the plans the organisation had been putting forward over the past year.
Figures given at the press conference showed that 32,000 farmers paid £78 million income tax last year. About 112,000 farmers had returned income on which there was no tax liability.