Tough year for NI farmers

Producers in the beef, pig and fishing sectors were all hard hit

By BBC NI farming correspondent Martin Cassidy

The year began with farmers in militant mood and thousands gathered at Stormont for an Ulster Farmers' Union rally to protest over a four-year long slump which saw incomes fall by 80%.

Agriculture minister Brid Rodgers told the crowd she would do all in her power to help ease their financial plight.

In March, farmers' leaders from across the UK were called to Downing Street where the prime minister chaired a summit to address the issues facing the industry.

Brid Rodgers: NI minister pushing local farmers' case in Brussels

An aid package of £200m was announced with Northern Ireland getting a £20m share of it to help cushion farmers from the impact of a strong pound.

Beef producers were given hope in April when minister Nick Brown and EU food safety commissioner David Byrne came to the province to lend their support to the case for export restrictions to be eased.

Hopes that shipments might resume by the autumn though were dashed, as the low BSE incidence case went through a lengthy consultation process.

There was worse to come however, as new BSE fears gripped Europe and Northern Ireland saw its incidence of the disease increasing.

Brid Rodgers returned from Brussels to tell the Northern Ireland Assembly that the low incidence case had been put on hold.

Pig industry hit

The spring brought no relief for the pig industry with Malton Foods announcing the closure of its pork processing factory at Ahoghill, and the Malton factory at Enniskillen also closed.

Later in the year, the government announced a scheme to help farmers leave an industry suffering its longest slump in living memory.

Dairy Crest's acquisition of the Fermanagh Creameries factory in Lisnaskea raised concerns about its future in a group planning to achieve efficiencies of £25m.

It was in November that staff were told that the factory would be closing by Christmas.

The dairy sector though, did show some signs of recovery with a slight improvement in milk prices towards the end of the year

Fishing quotas

Trawlermen faced new fishing restrictions in the spring as areas of the Irish Sea were closed in a bid to help cod stocks recover, and prawn prices slumped during the summer despite a cut in the local quota.

Ashore, there were new restrictions on sheep owners in the Mournes who lost their traditional mountain grazing after fears that sheep droppings might contaminate drinking water held in reservoirs.

September saw farmers back protesting at Stormont, this time helped by fishermen and lorry drivers. The issue was the spiralling cost of fuel.

The protestors demanded concessions from the government on fuel duty.

Road tax on tractors was later scrapped and grain producers, who had been left out of the March aid package, also benefitted from compensation for the impact of a strong pound.

There was to be more bad news from Brussels when fisheries ministers gathered in December to set catches for 2001.

A 10% cut in the prawn quota was met with dismay amongst the fishing communities of County Down while quotas for many other species were also reduced.