Mr. Nigel Sweetnam:

The reason we went outside Dunnes Stores is that it is our final link with the customer and it sets the level of price for our product. As poultry farmers, we see the multiple buyers as bully boys who have forced down the retail price of our products. Our products are produced to the highest standards in the world, yet we are getting one of the lowest prices in Europe for it. We have been to the processors looking for money but the intermediaries are already battling with the increase in the price of feed, which is astronomical and going up to €250,000 per week extra just to feed the birds. Their backs are to the wall and they have a poor relationship with the supermarkets, which are refusing to even give them a price increase for their costs, not to mind our costs. That is why we were at the door of the retailers and we got no response back from them. We have been waiting for representation from Dunnes Stores for three years so that is what brought us outside their doors and that is what it took to get it to talk to us.

Along with Mr. Cullinan and Mr. Malone we have met representatives of most of the supermarkets and they all know our costs. We did not have to tell them how much soy or gas had gone up; they all knew already. Getting the price back through the food chain is our big problem. Our costs to produce chicken are double what they were this time last year. As a result, the big battle we face is to get the money back to the farmers who need it.