Large supermarket groups' increasingly lower prices are making it impossible to produce safe food, the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) President Mr Tom Parlon has said.
Speaking at the IFA's AGM in Dublin today, Mr Parlon said: "I want to say to supermarkets today: you cannot have it both ways. As farmers we want to commit ourselves to the highest standards, which requires tractability and costs. Time and again, you undermine our commitment to best practice, devaluing food as a loss leader to inflate your profits.
Mr Parlon referred to the price of milk and the cutting of the price of bacon and cabbage which is down from 69p to 9p per head.
"It is disingenuous of supermarkets to pretend that endless cut-price campaigns and predatory pricing on suppliers and farmers have not had any effect on practices at the processing level, at farm level and within the animal feed industry", Mr Parlon added.
He added that BSE in the UK was as a result of the "constant hammering down" of food prices and the "ever-declining share farmers receive of the price paid by consumers".
He described beef in Ireland as "safe" and as a "prime product".
The Minister of Agriculture Mr Walsh is due to address the conference this evening and the Taoiseach will address it tonight.
