Wrangle over beef prices heats up as protests go on

A WAR of words continued yesterday between beef processors and farmers over cattle prices.

Chief executive of the Irish Meat Association John Smith, representing the processors, said the ongoing Irish Farmers' Association price protest action represents a serious threat to the viability of the beef industry and to the livelihoods of farmers.

But the IFA leader John Dillon said beef farmers are no longer prepared to tolerate sanctimonious lectures from the IMA on beef prices when it is the marketing failure of the factories that has left producers with the lowest cattle prices in Europe.