Guinness is definitely not good for grain farmers.
That was the verdict of the IFA president, Mr Tom Parlon, who yesterday pledged that not a drop of the black stuff will cross his lips until a dispute with the brewery and the millers is over.
Mr Parlon made his pledge to about 500 malting barley producers who yesterday protested outside Minch Norton headquarters, which supplies malt to the Guinness brewery.
"I won't touch the stuff until this matter is resolved and it's up to others if they want to do the same thing," said Mr Parlon who recently took over the 85,000 stong organisation.
Mr Parlon said the 3,000 specialist growers of malting barley for the trade had experienced a 30 per cent drop in the price they were being paid for malting barley in the past two years.
"While the price being paid to farmers has dropped from £115 per tonne to a little over £80 per tonne last year, the price of the pint has increased," he said.
The price reduction had been pocketed by Guinness, as was admitted recently by company representatives who said the 14 per cent increase in 1997 profits to £186 million was partly attributable to lower malting barley prices, Mr Parlon said.
"Despite this raw material price decrease the price of the pint of Guinness and other Guinness beers increased by five pence last autumn," he said.
"As far as I am concerned, Guinness is bad for grain farmers and is trying to drive small farmers out of business. I have decided that I am not going to drink any of their product until this dispute is resolved."
Mr Parlon said that the malt element of a pint of Guinness is less than one penny. The publican gets 82p, the State, 72p and the brewers, 50p per pint.