The long-term viability of the poultry sector has been put in jeopardy by the increased wage rates proposed under the employment permits system for non-EU workers, the Irish Farmers Association (IFA) has claimed.

The base salary has been increased to €30,000 for all grades of workers under changes to the permit system announced recently by Minister of State Neale Richmond.

And the intention is that further increases to a high of €39,000 will come into force over the coming years, Minister Richmond said.

However, IFA poultry chair Nigel Sweetnam has described the move as “totally unworkable”.

“Government has attempted to roll this [the increase in pay rates for work permit holders] out with little thought as to how this would impact our economy in its entirety,” Sweetnam said.

'Millions to wage bill'

“If that is introduced, it will add millions to the wage bill for the three chicken processors - and all processors - by effectively putting a new floor on minimum wage, not just for permit holders, but for all operatives,” the IFA representative maintained.

“What does this mean for Irish chicken? It means that in implementing this change, the Government are seriously jeopardising our Irish produce and family farms by further increasing our production cost base,” Sweetnam added.

Despite these challenges, Sweetnam predicted that Irish poultry farmers will hold the 3% increase in output recorded in 2023.

Broiler chicken throughput levels increased from 97m head in 2022 to 100m head in 2023. Total meat output was 137,000t.

Meanwhile, from a European perspective, a major fall-off in UK exports of poultry meat into the EU was recorded in 2023.

Exports from Britain to the EU fell by 26% during the first 10 months of 2023 compared with the same period in 2022.

However, imports from Ukraine increased by 56% to 203,000t during the same period - reflecting the impact of import tariffs being suspended.

Overall, EU imports of poultry meat for the first 10 months of last year were 6% higher than 2022 at 765,000t.