Tesco confirmed to the Irish Farmer's Association (IFA) on Monday morning that significant increases on all pigmeat products will come into effect.

However, IFA president Tim Cullinan said that these "substantial price increases" introduced by retailers have to be passed back to farmers immediately, as financial situations on farms worsen.

"It’s imperative that processors feed these increases down the chain as soon as they get them. The situation on farms is critical and losses are mounting.

"Now that increases have happened, there’s no excuse not to return a higher price to farmers," he said.

The IFA had met Tesco and Rosderra on Thursday night as part of the campaign to secure price increases for pig farmers.

Cavan protest

Meanwhile, pig and poultry farmers are protesting outside Aldi in Cavan on Monday.

Cullinan said that a feature of the inputs crisis has been the slow response from others in the food chain to support producers.

"We expect Aldi and other retailers to return a price to farmers that reflects the steep hike in input costs.

"Otherwise, Irish production will be lost,” he said.

The IFA campaign is looking for the price paid for pigs to reach €2/kg by 1 June.