Beef industry renews call for better prices
IFA president John Dillon said the key was the price paid by meat factories for cattle.
John O'Leary, Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association beef and cattle committee chairperson, also stressed that improved returns for beef farmers was the key to re-examination of the industry.
The renewed focus on cattle prices followed a procedural row in the Dáil.
Mr Dillon insisted that the economic reality was that livestock farmers needed a return to profitability.
"The prices paid by the Irish meat factories are the second lowest in
Europe," he said.
"Irish livestock farmers cannot survive when the meat factories set cattle prices at below the cost of production.
"That is how this autumn's dispute erupted. Livestock farmers cannot and will not be price-takers, if cattle prices are being forced below the cost of production."
Mr Dillon stressed that Irish livestock farmers would respond to market
demands and had shown this.
He said the IFA would welcome any initiative by Agriculture, Food and Rural Development Minister Joe Walsh that would increase cattle prices and restore profitability to livestock farmers, who have the lowest incomes in Irish agriculture.
Mr O'Leary said a widening gap
between prices in cattle aged over and under 30 months, and a drop in the price of beef cows, was unacceptable and unjustified.
Farmers were seeing the price of their stock falling at a time when markets, generally, were improving, he said.
"The current beef price drops do nothing to instil confidence or trust between farmers and factories and they should be immediately reversed, as they are totally unjustified."
Mr O'Leary said the ICMSA agreed with Minister Walsh that a major re-examination of the beef sector was required.
He said the Mid-Term Review provided the minister with an opportunity to seek improvements in the support policy for the beef sector and he must deliver for beef farmers.
Other proposals included objective grading of cattle and supply contracts targeting specific markets, and the ICMSA had long advocated this
approach, he said.
