Fine Gael warns of danger to beef industry
Party spokesperson Billy Timmins said there had been an unhealthy relationship between the factories and farmers for some time.
Farmers were left powerless because they had to accept the prices set by factories, he said.
Mr Timmins called on beef factories to look on their relationship with farmers as a partnership by accepting they must give them a better return for their produce.
“If farmers are faced with continuing price cuts, the inevitable outcome of current CAP reforms will mean that some farmers may choose to de-stock, cut their level of production and simply take their single farm payments.
“Such a scenario is in no one’s best interest, whether it be farmers, processors or the wider food sector,” Mr Timmins said.
Fine Gael MEP Mairéad McGuinness called for the appointment of an arbitrator in the dispute between farmers and the meat factories. She expressed concern that, yet again, beef farmers and the meat industry are in conflict.
“There is an onus of responsibility on the factories to build relationships with their suppliers but to date they have not done so. It is now time to call in an arbitrator,” she said.
Ms McGuinness called on Tánaiste Mary Harney and the incoming Minister for Agriculture to ensure companies in the beef industry operate fairly.
“We are exporting nine out of every ten cattle. The importance of the industry cannot be overstated and the producers will have to be protected,” she said.
Fine Gael’s comments followed Monday’s 24-hour protest by livestock farmers outside all 27 meat factories across the country over falling farm incomes and what farmers described as excessive cattle price cuts.
In an earlier statement, IFA President John Dillon said the protest had sent the message loud and clear to the meat factories that “farmers will not continue to produce cattle at a loss”.
“The factories will have to deliver a viable price. Otherwise, cattle numbers to the beef plants will fall under the new decoupling policy,” he said.
However, Meat Industry Ireland spokesman Cormac Healy, of IBEC, said the disruption to normal business in the beef processing industry was both harmful and counterproductive.
“The protest action, aimed at forcing processors to pay uneconomical cattle prices, was contrary to the National Partnership Process, of which farmers are participants and beneficiaries,” he said.
Mr Healy said this year cattle prices have been running at 12%-14% higher than last year and are at their highest for five years.
He said it was difficult to appreciate why producer representatives are continually dissatisfied. Department of Agriculture reported prices show the steer price in Ireland is currently over 10% higher compared to the same week last year.
Current difficulties arise from a sharp rise in finished cattle supplies coinciding with a period of unexpectedly poor demand in the marketplace for beef. The protest action will not change the commercial reality of the marketplace, Mr Healy said.
