UFU silent on how Moy Park has treated its farmers

The Ulster Farmers’ Union has declined to comment on how Moy Park treated its farmers, despite a series of revelations in the News Letter over recent days.
By Sam McBride
Published 24th Jun 2020, 08:01 BST
The UFU said it had no comment on Moy Park's actionsThe UFU said it had no comment on Moy Park's actions
The UFU said it had no comment on Moy Park's actions

On Saturday, the News Letter revealed that the vast poultry processor had misled the public, telling them that it derived no financial benefit from poultry farmers installing RHI boilers when in fact it was aware of enormous financial benefits to it as an indirect result of farmers accepting its encouragement to enter RHI.

On Monday, this newspaper revealed from internal Moy Park documentation that – again contrary to what it said publicly – the company was aware that poultry farmers in GB were requiring far more heat, for which the company had to pay them, than the level of heat for which it was prepared to pay its Northern Ireland farmers.

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Senior Moy Park manager David Mark joked that the savings from how much farmers were being paid for heat would at least help to pay his salary.

The News Letter asked the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) if it had any view on the revelations, and also, if it believed that the size of Moy Park – which now has virtually no rivals in Northern Ireland – is problematic for farmers. The UFU responded: “The UFU have no comment to make.”

Yesterday one poultry farmer who has not spoken publicly about RHI told the News Letter he couldn’t understand why his union had no view on what had gone on.

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Moy Park knew it wasn’t paying its RHI farmers enough – and that it was cashing ...

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Related topics:Moy ParkUlster Farmers' UnionUFUNorthern Ireland