Major beef decisions made far away from round table
Major planning went into industry development, when preparing the Food Harvest 2020 targets to increase beef output value by 20%. This was boosted to 40% on the recommendation of the industry-led Beef Activation Group, monitored and reviewed by a high-level implementation committee chaired by Mr Coveney. But it’s time to modify the strategy again, and farmers were particularly eager to accept the Minister’s invitation. They feel hard done-by, getting a poor price relative to the booming UK market, where so much of their beef is sold, and facing very high production costs.
A burning issue today will be allegations of anti-competitive practices by cattle buyers — such as refusing to buy cattle born in the Republic of Ireland, but fattened and slaughtered in the UK. Farm-ers and co-op marts have brought these allegations to the European Commission.
However, someone who won’t be sitting at today’s beef round-table pulls a lot of strings in the Irish beef industry: that’s the end purchaser of Irish beef.
Those at the meeting in Dublin have to bear in mind that Tesco, ASDA and Sainsbury’s require either British beef — born, reared and slaughtered in the UK — or Irish beef, born, reared and slaughtered in the Republic of Ireland.
It’s an example of how the tail wags the dog — British retailers deciding the fortunes of the beef industry throughout the island of Ireland.
But the customer is always right.
They are looking after their shoppers and their shareholders, with the concerns of the beef industry secondary.
Their policy restricts the Irish beef industry — and starves the British beef industry of valuable raw material from Ireland.
With the “pure” UK or Irish demand, Northern Ireland and mainland Great Britain would be importing thousands of cattle from the south of Ireland, where prices are significantly lower.
Instead, retailers’ requirement for 100% British beef, or 100% Irish beef, have led to a decline in Irish cattle live-exports to Northern Ireland (by 13% in 2013), and to Britain.
Bord Bia has asked the big UK retailers about taking beef from Irish- bor n animals finished and slaughtered in the UK, and has been consistently refused.
That’s why farmers at today’s meeting in Dublin may be told that getting more beef and cattle to markets other than the UK (which is taking 53% of our beef exports) — or to less choosy, non-retail buyers in the UK — is their best hope for stronger competition and higher prices.
Or, the message could go out, from today’s meeting, to the beef industry in Northern Ireland, and across the water, that it is in their interests to find a way around UK retailer requirements, and take competitively priced cattle from southern Ireland.
There’s a ready market in the UK, where cattle numbers are the lowest in 80 years.
The latest statistics from the Northern Ireland beef industry show a 10.5% slump in the number of beef cattle aged 12-18 months (9% for beef-sired cattle and 20% for dairy- sired males).
This is good news for northern farmers, enjoying strong store cattle prices, but not so for northern processors, who can no longer fill the gap in their plants with cattle imported from south of the border.
Beef-bred cows were 46.6% of the northern cow kill last month, so it was no surprise that beef-sired calf registrations were down 10.9% (and 16.8% over two years).
The picture will become clearer as the year goes on, but the Livestock and Meat Commission, up north, says the numbers trend is a worrying development for their beef industry.
Today’s meeting in Dublin could end worries all round, if it could find a way to channel cattle from Ireland to fill market shortages north of the border and across the Irish Sea.
