So says the IFA’s poultry chairman Ned Morrissey, who claimed that demand for poultry remained high despite the confirmed case of avian ‘flu in Britain recently.

“Critically, the shopping period from Thursday last to Sunday, when most households do their week-ly shop, showed that consumers continue to buy poultry in the same numbers,” Mr Morrissey said.

He said that poultry produced in Ireland was of the highest standards and consumers could be confident that Irish chicken was a safe product. However, Mr Morrissey warned that vast amounts of imported meat were being passed off in some hotels, restaurants, pubs and catering establishments as Irish.

“This causes problems for Irish poultry farmers, as it is impossible for them to compete with cheaper inferior goods, produced at standards that would not be tolerated in this country,” he said.

“Poultry farmers have been pressing Minister Mary Coughlan for a number of years to have proper labelling, including country of origin information, introduced on all meat imports. The minister granted this to beef but has failed to extend the benefits of transparency to producers and consumers of poultry meat.”

The poultry chairman said traceability was the key to guaranteeing consumer confidence and to give the consumer a guarantee they were buying Irish chicken only.

Source: The Nationalist