24th July 2015

ICSA president Patrick Kent has welcomed the official opening yesterday (Thursday 23rd July) of the new €50 million facility in Cahir by the ABP group but has asked for some indication from ABP as to what percentage improvement in price will accrue to farmers. “The new facility includes the introduction of a gel bone processing plant which according to ABP will lead to added value in the processing of bovine bones for the pharmaceutical and beauty industries. In our view, the rewards need to be shared fairly between ABP and hard pressed beef farmers.

“It is our understanding that this is a potentially exciting and lucrative revenue stream from the fifth quarter and it is essential that it is exploited to benefit not only ABP but farmers as well. This is against a background where Teagasc has stated that, in 2014, 40% of cattle finishing farms are economically vulnerable and another 40% are only sustainable because of off-farm jobs.”

“I am calling on the ABP group to make a statement outlining what this new gel bone processing plant will do in terms of better beef prices for farmers. Is it going to add 10c or 20c/kg or could we get some indication as to what percentage improvement it will make to the price of beef? These are serious questions which need to be answered so that suckler farmers in particular can evaluate whether they should be putting cows in calf or reducing herd size.”