War of words, but no beef price change
However, there has been no overall change in beef prices at factories for the week. Slaughtering at the AIBP factories at Nenagh and Cahir, Dawn Meats at Waterford, Meadow Meats at Rathdowney, and Kepak at Athleague will not resume until tomorrow.
Supplies of cattle under 30 months have tightened in some areas this week but there has been no change in overall quoted prices at the factories, which are at 232c/kg for R grade and 224c/kg for O grade.
Up to 3c/kg quoted by some factories last week is not available this week. Cattle over 30 months are being quoted back to 215c/kg this week.
IFA leader John Dillon has called on Enterprise Ireland to put rationalisations plans for the beef processing industry on hold "until the industry comes forward with a proper marketing strategy".
He accused the factories of price-fixing and claimed their marketing failure had left Irish cattle prices at the bottom of the European league.
IMA chief executive John Smith responded by saying the price reference grade (R3) used by the IFA accounts for only 7% of all slaughtered steers as the scale of quality grading cattle in Ireland is the lowest in Europe at 11% grading R3 or better.
He said when factory prices and premia are taken into account Irish producers are on a par with other EU states on total return.
