Families are paying an extra €3,000 a year for groceries as inflation soarsFarmers blame politicians as consumers warned days of ‘cheap food’ are over
The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) also accused politicians of “profound ignorance” as it blamed them for adding cost to food production.
Food inflation is double the rate of general inflation, with many families being forced to stump up an additional €3,000 a year due to the rise in grocery prices.
The cost of a pound of butter is up more than €1 in the last year. The prices of milk, beef, cheese, bread and other staples have soared.
The fear is that they will continue rising after recent CSO figures found prices being paid to cattle farmers rose by 50pc in the year to April.
The ICSMA said rising food prices are here to stay.
Be honest with the public and explain the days of ‘cheap food’ are over
“Politicians expressing shock about the rise in food prices are effectively admitting a profound ignorance about the costs they have ‘built in’ to the production of food,” association president Denis Drennan said.
He said they would “be much better advised to be honest with the public and explain that the days of ‘cheap food’ are over”.
The warning echoes sentiments of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA), which said a recent survey by director of policy Tadhg Buckley showed costs had increased by nearly 75pc in the last seven years.
Last month, Agriculture Minister Martin Heydon warned that the recent surge in food prices is unlikely to be reversed. He said it reflects farmers’ input costs.
UCC economist Oliver Browne has calculated that grocery prices have increased by 36pc in the past four years.
In a statement, Mr Drennan said the prices farmers are now getting are only marginally ahead of their costs of production.
He was reacting to recent exchanges in the Dáil and comments made by politicians expressing outrage over the rise in the cost of food.
The farmers’ leader said he understood why consumers would be perplexed by food inflation rising faster than any general consumer inflation index.
He said every single input on his members’ dairy and beef farms had increased in cost and very often in excess of any rise in output price received by the farmer.
It wasn’t sustainable then and it certainly isn’t sustainable now
Underlying the complaints about food inflation was the implication that farmers should “take one for the team” and absorb increased costs in producing food out of their own pockets.
“That day is over. It’s gone. It wasn’t sustainable then and it certainly isn’t sustainable now,” he said.
“This idea, this delusion, that all the extra costs involved in producing milk or beef are going to be picked up by the farmer is gone and is never coming back.”
Mr Drennan said politicians “have conspired to create this fantasy that we are going to transition to a wonderful, new, highly-regulated, lower-volume food production system with all the changes happening from the supermarket fridge ‘backwards’ to the farm and without any extra cost for the consumer. That’s not just a delusion, it’s just wilful ignorance”.
He added that the cost of producing food has risen, will go up further and the consumer price will reflect this reality.
There were calls in the Dáil last week for supermarkets to publish their profits as the price of groceries soars.
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