Shareholders in agribusiness group Glanbia have been told that high prices for pigs have affected the group's pigmeat operations in Ireland and the UK, but that an improvement is expected in the second half of the year.

The news of the pricing problems in the pigmeat operations came from Glanbia group managing director, Mr Ned Sullivan, who said that otherwise the group's cheese and ingredients operations had performed satisfactorily. On pig prices, Mr Sullivan said that new British regulations on quality assurance had meant that the supply of pigs had fallen from 330,000 to 240,000 and that had driven prices upwards.

The cheese business in the US and the pizza cheese and retail cheese businesses in the UK had all had a satisfactory start to the year, although some teething problems at the food-service business's new facilities had continued into this year.

Yesterday's annual general meeting was, however, dominated by Glanbia's poor share price performance - the share has fallen to an all-time low in the past few weeks and is trading at a quarter of the price it reached in the aftermath of the Avonmore-Waterford merger that created Glanbia.

Comparing Glanbia shares with other food companies, one shareholder asked: "So what's wrong with Glanbia?" Another shareholder said bluntly: "It's a source of embarrassment, the Stock Exchange is saying we have no confidence in Glanbia." Another shareholder blamed the group's current difficulties on Glanbia's aggressive expansion in the early and mid-1990s. "Our problems started in the 90s when we threw hundreds of millions of pounds at acquisitions that proved to be a disaster."

Mr Sullivan was unable to provide any immediate relief for Glanbia shareholders.

Mr Sullivan and retiring chairman Mr John Duggan faced questioning about the level of directors' pay - £1.3 million (€1.65 million) was shared by seven directors, the cost of the audit by PricewaterhouseCoopers, consultancy fees paid to McKinsey and settlements with directors who left in the past year that prevented them becoming involved with competing companies. On directors' pay, Mr Duggan said he always believed you had to pay the market rate to get the best people.