Some things never change, as beef price tumbles again

AS beef farmers vent their anger at falling prices this week, the industry might reflect on how little has changed in a long, long time.

Scarcity of cattle from April to June this year drove prices to a high not seen since the aftermath of the MacSharry CAP Reform. Now, strong cattle supplies are cutting the profit out of farmers’ pockets, as prices slump.

While farmers formed picket lines outside factories yet again this week, the Irish Cattle and Sheepfarmers Association was offering their ‘solution’, in the form of a Beef Strategy Board.

According to ICSA President Malcolm Thompson, the new board would involve all players in the production, processing and selling of beef, and would “review and revise strategy on an ongoing basis”, so as to “overcome the nonsense of regular and repeated beef crisis”.

Brilliant idea! Why did nobody ever think of it before? It would make life so much better for cattle farmers and, in Thompson’s words, enable them “to operate a modern business”, which is what beef farming should be all about in these time of cutting costs and increasing efficiency at every level.

What the ICSA leader is suggesting makes perfect sense. We need a properly structured industry for one of the country’s major indigenous exports.

However, if Malcolm had looked back on the history of beef farming and processing, he would realise how many times the same idea was proposed, discussed, partially agreed to in principle, but never came within a near miss of getting over the final hurdle of being implemented. He said it all, but those farmers with a lifetime of struggling in beef production were hearing nothing new when he summed up, “Current beef prices are deplorable and farmers need a long term strategy that will overcome the nonsense of regular and repeated beef crisis. Not enough is being done to ensure that we have adequate and suitable markets for beef.”

It is ridiculous that factories are unable to move beef, at a time when the supply is coming towards its peak. Bord Bia needs to re-examine its strategy, in conjunction with producers and processors, with an eye on the realities facing us in the new era of decoupling.