Munster protest by farmers over beef

Munster, a heartland of livestock production, last evening became the latest battleground in an escalating protest campaign by farmers over falling beef prices and specification cuts.

Farmers with over 30 tractors protested outside the Aldi supermarket in Mitchelstown as the Irish Farmers Association stepped up its campaign against retailers and meat factories.

Similar protests by farmers, furious over falling incomes, were staged outside Tesco in Naas, Co Kildare, and Lidl in Ballinasloe, Co Galway, during the past week. But last evening’s tea time demonstration in Mitchelstown was the first to be held in Munster where over 42% of all Irish cattle are located and where nine of the major meat factories are based.