Asking hard questions on beef QPS
The Association will not row-in with a consensus that it feels is based on a faulty or flawed analysis of a situation. And it has always, from its earliest days, insisted that the only legitimate starting point for any debate about Irish farming is how incomes of Irish farmers can be improved.
ICMSA does not pose or pretend; it is fixed upon and works towards raising the incomes and defending the financial interests of Irish farmers.
In the words of its Beef and Cattle Chairman, Kevin Connolly, “We’re not that bothered about selling phone packages or marketing commercial enterprises.”
“What we do care about very much is ensuring that the rules of the game are not rigged against the farmers. Where we see a situation like that, then we’ll call it. And we don’t care who we upset in those circumstances.”
The QPS beef grid has just passed its first anniversary, and not even the most deluded defender of the grid would be able to pretend that it has been a success, and it’s introduction has been smooth. The first — in fact, the only — farm organisation to publicly accuse the QPS of being over-complicated and unfair to the majority of farmers, is the ICMSA.
As early as last January, ICMSA hosted a large meeting in Abbeyleix to co-ordinate the protest against the introduction of the QPS, and to highlight the absurd degree of complexity and unpredictability that the Grid involved.
The usual suspects accused ICMSA of being stick-in-the-muds and not being ‘up with the times’, but the association stood its ground and never wavered from its conviction that the grid is downright unfair, and impossible for even veterans of the Irish beef trade to understand and predict.
A year later, and with the tide of opinion well turned against the QPS, Kevin Connolly stands vindicated and unrepentant.
“Of course we were right about the QPS. From Day One, the flaws in the grid were evident, and if the past few years in this country have taught us anything, we should surely have learned that you shouldn’t ignore problems in the hope that they’ll go away. If something is obviously wrong, then face up to it and fix it.”
“This Grid was foisted on farmers, and we were left with a situation where people selling animals for 40 years couldn’t tell what they’d get for their cattle.
“Neither could agents. Neither could anyone. It was utterly ridiculous, and yet you had this conspiracy of silence where those bodies that farmers could reasonably expect to speak up for them were all pretending that the QPS was a great thing, and the way forward.”
“ICMSA won’t be part of that false consensus, and we criticised the Grid for exactly those reasons.
nSerious questions need to be answered by Irish meat processors as to why Irish farmers are now receiving the same price for their beef as their Brazilian counterparts, according to Mr Connolly.
According to Bord Bia figures released very recently, Mr Connolly said, the Irish R3 steer price, excluding VAT, is 284 c/kg, while the Brazilian price is 282c/kg. In the same week in 2009, the Irish price was 268c/kg, while the Brazilian price was 184c/kg.
This means that in this single year, Irish beef prices have only increased by six per cent, while at the same time, Brazilian beef prices have increased by a massive 53.3 per cent, compared to November 2009.
The value of the Brazilian R3 steer has increased by about €352, while the Irish R3 steer has only increased by €57.
ICMSA’s Kevin Connolly wants to know why.
“There is something seriously wrong with our system when Brazilian prices can increase to the levels of Irish prices, which have barely increased at all.”
“And that, it’s worth remembering, is after the Brazilians have paid a tariff to get their beef into the European market.”
“Where is the benefit of selling into the EU market gone?
“Where are the promised benefits of the beef price grid?
“Someone is ripping-off Irish beef farmers and it is quite clear that some element along the supply chain is making considerable profits at the expense of farmers.
“We note that the Brazilians are claiming that strong export markets are among the reasons for the improved prices. But if Brazil is benefiting from this strong demand, the question must be asked why are Irish farmers not benefiting? Or not benefiting in proportion or as quickly as the Brazilians? ” asked the Beef Committee Chairman.
Mr Connolly said the supply chain in beef is broken, and our politicians at national and EU level have all signally failed to address the power brokers operating along the supply chain — from multiple retailers down — who are taking excessive profits at the expense of farmers.
He continued by saying that such a confrontation will eventually have to take place — because it must.
But in the meantime, Irish farmers demand to know how the demand that has driven Brazilian prices to such dizzying heights seems to have had much less of an effect on Irish product.
The onus was now firmly on the meat industry and Bord Bia to explain why Irish beef prices were not increasing similarly.
He concluded by again repeating his conviction that the beef price grid will have to be suspended if the confusion was to end and a degree of confidence brought back to the sector.
