Ireland's two biggest poultry producers have warned that chicken prices will rise by 15 per cent within weeks because of escalating feed costs.
Vincent Carton, managing director of Manor Farm, the Republic's biggest poultry producer, said their feed costs have risen by more than €100,000 a week. The rises have been blamed on the increasing use of agricultural land for bioethanol, especially in the United States; a poor harvest in Australia; and demand for chicken feed, especially in China and India.
"The 15 per cent is on top of the 15 per cent last year. The era of cheap chicken is over," he said.
Moy Park, which is based in Northern Ireland, said similar increases could be expected with their chicken products. Moy Park is the biggest poultry producer in Ireland and is one of the biggest suppliers to the UK market.
Moy Park spokesman Gareth Jones said the price of wheat has gone up by 200 per cent in the last 15 months, which was "beyond our worst expectations".
"Prices need to rise to compensate for the extraordinary high increases in feed prices," he said.
The price increases will add an average of about €1.25 to the price of a standard bird and double that for a free-range bird. Manor Farm estimates the prices could be passed on to the consumer as soon as next week, while Moy Park believes it may happen in the spring.
Chicken farmers say they are only breaking even on the cost of rearing the birds. Ned Morrissey, chairman of the IFA's poultry committee, said it cost them 35 cent to rear a standard chicken and 60 cent for a free-range bird, the same average price they were receiving from the producers.
The relative cheapness of chicken compared to other meat products has made it by far Ireland's most popular meat. Ireland consumes an average of 3.25 million chicken pieces a week, the highest per average in the EU.
Celebrity chefs Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Jamie Oliver have been campaigning against the intensive rearing of chickens in the UK in recent weeks. They have urged consumers to buy only free range.
Last weekend, restaurateur Kevin Thornton described intensively reared chicken as "poison".
Moy Park, which supplies half the free-range chickens sold in the UK, said there had been a "slight movement" by customers towards free-range birds, but the figures were not significant.
"The idea of rearing nothing but free-range birds is not practical," Mr Jones said.
