Irish pig producers will receive a further aid package worth around €13m (£10.9m) as farmers there continue to see losses due to surging costs.
The new package will provide farmers up to €70,000 (£58.9k), but access to it is conditional on them cutting production by 10%, according to Irish media reports.
The Teagasc Forecast Cashflows estimate that the average pig farm is losing nearly €60,000 (£50.5k) each month.
This is largely due to the unprecedented and rapid escalation of feed costs since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
While the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) welcomed the aid, it said a mandatory reduction on farmers would be 'totally opposed'.
The body also raised concerns that the aid amount would not be enough to sustain the sector.
The IFA appeared before the Joint Oireachtas Committee recently to discuss the income crisis.
It said that 7% of pig farmers had already been forced to exit, with a further 20–30% at serious risk of going out of business.
Producers had already incurred exceptional losses, the IFA added, and it was expected that in total, these losses would exceed €160m from late 2021 to early 2023.
IFA President Tim Cullinan said the Irish pig sector was one of the most important sectors in the Irish agricultural economy, supporting around 8,000 jobs.
Mr Cullinan said: “While any funding is welcome, I am concerned that it will not be enough to stop departures from the sector."
“We need to see a substantial increase in the price of pigmeat urgently. If retailers are serious about having Irish pigmeat on the shelves, the increase needs to be passed back along the supply chain to keep farmers viable."
He warned: "We are in real danger of losing a whole sector."
The aid package comes as pig producers in England continue to press the UK government for more support.
Other nations, competing in the same markets, have supported their own pig sectors.
The Scottish government has introduced two packages, including a 'Pig Producers Hardship Support Scheme', totalling £1.4 million.
And in Northern Ireland, a similar compensation package has allowed pig farmers to access £3.6 million in emergency funding.
Defra Secretary George Eustice was urged last week to provide "urgent, direct support" for producers suffering from the worsening financial situation.
The National Pig Association (NPA) and the NFU said the Ukraine war had moved the sector "from a very challenging financial situation to a critical one from which we fear many will not recover."
