Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) National Poultry Committee Chairman Alo Mohan said: “In 2010, farmers were forced to carry out a number of protests to highlight how the retailers, in their pursuit of market share, were making farming unviable. The retailers who take massive profits, at the expense of primary producers, are putting indigenous industries such as poultry production and the associated local jobs in jeopardy.”

“Supermarkets maintain their high margins no matter what is happening to their suppliers. Such is their dominant position in the market, they can ignore the impact of rising costs of production for far longer than the farming sectors - pig, poultry, beef, milk and egg producers – who must pay to feed their animals immediately no matter how much world grain market prices soar.”

“Irish farmers work hard and operate to the highest standards under the Bord Bia Quality Assurance Scheme and yet they are being asked to give additional credit to a processing sector, which is struggling in negotiations with retailers to claw back some of the losses incurred due to the feed price increases.”

Mr Mohan said: “Energy price increases in the last 12 months have made it almost impossible for farmers to survive but because of the feed price increases, farmers have been unable to recoup these losses.

"Retailers take the high moral ground on this issue; stating that they are supplying a ‘good value offering’ to their customers. Make no mistake this ‘good value offering’ will not be available to consumers in 12 months time unless the retail sector wakes up to the reality that quality food cannot be produced ‘cheaply’. Given their position in the food supply chain, retailers must return a fair price to processors so primary producers can survive.”