Farming special - Day 3:
Since February, livestock farmers have been protesting, at retail outlets and meat plants, against falling incomes, which they blame on price and carcase-specification cuts for weight and age.
An impressive 60% of the 582 farmers interviewed pointed to the live export trade to boost their industry.
In contrast, only one out of five interviewees thought investigating competition between meat processors was the way to improve the prospects of Irish beef farmers.
They were asked to rank the importance of live exports, competition investigation, changes to the QPS grid, or farmers’ technical expertise.
Abolishing or completely overhauling the Quality Payment System was considered the most important change by only 12% of farmers.
The survey indicated how at odds farmers are with beef processors. Improved technical expertise of beef farmers was deemed the most important change by only 7% of farmers. However, Meat Industry Ireland (MII), representing beef processors, recently pointed to lack of efficiency gains as one of the main reasons for disappointing beef farmer profitability.
Elsewhere in the survey, beef farmers’ income difficulties were clearly reflected in responses to a question about beef industry prospects.
Just one in three farmers was optimistic about the future of beef farming.
Nearly half said beef farming was “not that secure” or “not at all secure”; 18% had no view, when asked, “Has beef farming in Ireland a secure future or not?”
Only 9% of all respondents were very secure about the future of the beef industry; 25% sadi they were quite secure.
The 56 tillage farmers interviewed appeared to be marginally the most optimistic about beef, at 43%, but only 30% of livestock farmers — 322 were asked — were optimistic.
Some 30% of the farmers said the beef farming sector in Ireland is “not that secure”; 18% said “not at all secure”.
The findings that one third of all respondents believe the future of beef is secure, but that half feel it is not, indicates an intriguing breakdown of attitudes among farmers.
But one of the strongest findings was the belief by 60% of farmers that live exporting was the best hope for the beef sector. Live exports up to July were 14% higher than in 2013. But potential to grow the live trade to the UK is constrained by buying specifications operated by the British retail chains, which militate against cattle born in this country and exported live for finishing and processing in the UK.
Farm leaders have been campaigning to have these labelling ‘roadblocks’ removed, in the hope that increased trade will boost cattle prices.
Earlier this year, Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney said that EU mandatory labelling rules prevent final retailers from describing beef products from animals born in Ireland, but exported live for finishing and processing in Britain, as British or Irish.
The labelling has to state the country of birth as Ireland, the country of rearing as Ireland, and the country of slaughter as the UK, and Mr Coveney said this is regarded as difficult to communicate to consumers and likely to cause unnecessary labelling complications.
Mr Coveney said that British retailers preferred beef to be sourced from animals that originated in one country only, and to market British and Irish beef separately.
This has particularly led to a reduction in demand from Northern processors for animals born in the Republic.
Agriculture Minister Coveney and his counterpart in the North, Minister Michelle O’Neill, discussed this difficulty recently.
Mr Coveney said that in the case of meat from animals exported live from the Republic, for slaughter in Northern Ireland, there was a strong case for marketing it in Britain on an equal footing with beef born, reared and slaughtered in the Republic.
