Offer to hold talks is shot down as cattle prices fall
Before a farmer protest at five factories from this evening, last night the IMA were asked by the IFA to stand back from central representation of the meat factories and allow for official talks with individual factories on cattle prices.
Bord Bia has also been asked by Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association president Pat O'Rourke to convene an "urgent, high-level meeting" of farm organisations and meat processors to solve the dispute, now in its fifth week.
Some processors reduced the price for R grade bullocks to 229c/kg yesterday, while the price for over-age cattle dropped to 218-212c/kg for R/O grades.
IFA leader John Dillon confirmed last night that the planned protest at five meats plants, AIBP at Cahir and Nenagh, Dawn Meats at Waterford and Ballaghadereen, and Kepak at Clonee, would begin at 7pm and run until late afternoon on Friday.
No processing of cattle is expected to take place at these factories over the next three days.
Mr Dillon said he had offered to suspend the protest for negotiations as long as the factories agreed to hold current prices for three weeks.
The IMA, in a statement from chief executive John Smith, said: "The price of cattle is a matter of negotiation
between the individual meat factory and the individual farmer, the Irish Meat Association does not buy cattle and will not be involved in negotiating cattle prices on a centralised basis on behalf of its members."
CSO figures released yesterday show that there were 103,000 fewer cattle over two years old in the country at the end of June compared to the same time last year, which should indicate tighter supplies for the rest of the year than for the last quarter of 2001.
Supplies of cattle to the factories yesterday were strong, with a big increase in the number of over-age cattle.
