Irish consumers are demanding transparency in the cost of food and asking why Irish prices are dearer than in other European countries, Mr Dermot Jewell, chief executive of the Consumers' Association of Ireland, said yesterday.
He told the Animal and Plant Health Association's annual conference in Wicklow that a recent Consumers' Association of Ireland EU-wide investigation of drugs in pork had found nitrofurans in pork from Greece, Italy and Portugal. Irish samples were clean.
"However, when we compared the prices being paid per kg in the eurozone, Irish consumers were being charged €9.12, much more than anyone else, for their meat," he said.
"The next-highest price in the 10-nation survey was The Netherlands, with a price of €8.49. I am asking as a consumer, why is this the case?" he said.
Producers, he said, had to accept that food safety was a "given". Consumers expect food safety and no compromise on quality - either from home-produced or imported food.
"However, consumers also expect quality at affordable prices, and there must be transparency in the pricing for food," he said.
He added that there was a major problem with the EU regulations relating to the labelling of food, especially food being imported into Ireland.
"Not enough is being done to counteract that, and we cannot continue in a position where we have misleading and false information on food," he said.
"The consumer is not getting what he or she is seeking, and that means they are not getting value for money and are being ripped off," he said.
The issue of labelling of food was also addressed by Mr Pat O'Keeffe, chairman of the Irish Farmers' Association's National Pig Committee. He said that pig producers here were being "harassed" by pig meat imports.
"We have pig meat coming in here and being relabelled as Irish, and that cannot be allowed to continue because it is damaging the whole profile of the industry here which has worked so hard to establish itself," he said.
What was needed, he said, was the amendment of legislation to ensure compulsory country-of-origin labelling of all pork and bacon at retail and catering level. We also need a removal of the anomaly of EU regulations - "substantial transformation" of imported pork could not mean that it could be sold as Irish.
The director of the Animal and Plant Health Association, Mr Declan O'Brien, predicted a period of relative stability in farming following the WTO and Fischler reforms in agriculture.
"There is much to be positive about in terms of the future of Irish agriculture, but to secure the viability of the farming and the food sectors in the period ahead, it will be necessary to adjust all farming and food business operations to reap maximum benefit from the new agricultural trading environment," he said.
Dair producer Mr John Leeson, the owner of the Wicklow dairy farm on which Celebrity Farm is being filmed, said there was an urgent need for co-operation at industry level to minimise collection and processing costs.
Mr Rory Fanning, general manager of Slaney Foods, called for rationalisation through "ruthless competition". He said that Irish beef must be marketed as a premium product in Britain.