Vol. 507 No. 4
25 Mr. Ellis asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the market outlook for pigmeat; the lessons, if any, learned from the recent crisis which has had a profound effect on profitability, especially for small and medium sized producers; the measures, if any, which will be put into place at EU and national level to prevent a recurrence; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16535/99]
Since the beginning of this year, pigmeat prices throughout the EU have increased. Irish pigmeat prices increased by almost 9 per cent. The EU Commission has recently indicated that production is likely to be back to 1998 levels by the end of this month, which should further help the market. The market difficulties in the sector were worldwide and were caused by a combination of factors which led essentially to excess supply over demand. These factors included overproduction in certain countries, inside and outside the EU, the weakness in the Far Eastern market and the financial collapse in Russia.
In response, and from the outset, I took a number of measures. Last year I, together with my colleagues from other member states, succeeded in getting the EU Commission to increase export refunds and to introduce an aids to private storage scheme for pigmeat. The rates of export refunds were increased on a number of occasions in 1998 and also in 1999. These increases ranged from 33 per cent to 80 per cent. The aids to private storage scheme is still running and to date, over 328,000 tonnes have been removed from the EU market and placed in storage.
At the request of the Council of Agriculture Ministers, the Commission introduced a food aid programme for Russia which included 100,000 tonnes of pigmeat. To date 22,000 tonnes have been sent to Russia, and the Commission is making arrangements with the Russian authorities for the supply of the second tranche of 40,000 tonnes. The removal of this quantity of pigmeat from the EU will, no doubt, help market prices.
Throughout the period of difficulty for the sector, I have been in regular contact with the producer and processing sides of the industry. I have also had meetings with the banking and feed provision sectors to urge them to be as understanding as possible of producers' special difficulties and to give them maximum support.
Despite the continuing improvement in the pigmeat market, I will continue to press the EU Commission to maximize the use of export refunds and aids to private storage, and to introduce additional measures, with the aim of further improving prices for Irish producers and providing greater stability to the pig sector generally.
