Some of the 45,000 tonnes of pigmeat imported into the State has not been orrectly labelled or identified in the correct manner, a major conference on ig production heard yesterday.
Dr Patrick Wall, of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, said the audit division within the FSAI had uncovered evidence to show some pigmeat imports could not be traced back to source.
This was a major food safety issue.
The conference, organised by the Irish Farmers' Association in Abbeyleix, was told by Mr John Dillon, the IFA president, that farmers were currently producing pigmeat at below break-even prices.
He accused processors of passing back the minimum price to producers either through an unwillingness or inability to reflect what the market was returning.
"Efficiencies inside the farm gate have sustained the pig industry over the past number of years, but that is not enough to protect and develop the industry in the future," he said.
"Over the past decade Irish producers have invested €190 million of their own money to improve production performance and match international best practice," he said.
"A similar amount has been invested in the processing sector, but this was 60-70 per cent grant-aided, and despite this level of State funding the industry is again in need of significant investment and restructuring to catch up with international competitors," he said.
This situation had to be addressed in the best interests of the producer.
The implementation of a supply-chain alliance system could only be implemented if there was a transparent pricing system such as Denmark's.
Mr Dillon also highlighted the low margins that producers were receiving relative to the consumer price for their products.
"Producers are committed to producing the highest-quality product, but they get less than 30 per cent of the end retail price. Supermarkets can well afford to pass back much more to producers without any rise in the consumer price," he said.