Irish Farmers have called for supermarkets in Ireland to stock only Irish chicken in a bid to follow UK supermarkets' lead. Many British retailers have guaranteed that they will sell only Scottish chicken in Scotland, Northern Irish chicken in Northern Ireland and so on.
Alo Mohan, chairman of the IFA’s poultry committee, told the Irish Times that since the horsemeat crisis, UK retailers have been considering a UK-only policy when sourcing meat products.
He said, “We’ve got Aldi, who’ve gone 100 per cent Irish chicken and eggs, and SuperValu and Superquinn had committed to it but we don’t have the same commitment from the other retailers in Ireland.”
Mr Mohan said that poultry suppliers’ requests of Tesco Ireland to stock only Irish produce in its Irish stores went nowhere. Tesco said that more than half their produce originates from Irish producers in the Republic and that sourcing here has grown by 30% in the last year.
Mr Mohan emphasised that several poultry processors have shut down recently, with only 360 commercial poultry farmers currently in operation.
© 2013 - Checkout Magazine by Genna Patterson
