14th April 2014

ICSA president Patrick Kent has said that next Thursday’s (April 17) Round Table meeting on the beef sector organised by Minister Coveney must focus on restoring order and confidence to the sector by protecting producers from the rapacious profiteering of big business. “Unless efficient producers can have confidence that there is a viable and stable business, there is no prospect of maintaining the suckler herd at its current level and exports of quality beef will decline significantly.”

Mr Kent described the current beef market for farmers as a wild west where farmers are at the mercy of all sorts of unscrupulous practices when it comes to buying their products. “This is a scenario where the sheriff has been out of town for too long and the lack of regulation is encouraging more and more gouging of farmers by the powerful elite who control processing and retailing.”

“We have had numerous calls from farmers who have been paid as little as €3/kg for prime beef which did not qualify for the Quality Assurance. In cases, it was due to animals being a few days short of the residency requirement. This has nothing to do with consumer demands and everything to do with ripping off farmers and reducing the overall price paid for beef.”

“Unfortunately, the Beef Quality Assurance Scheme has become discredited in the eyes of many farmers who see it as a stick to drive down price. It’s bad enough that the base price has fallen from €4.30 to €3.95 in a relatively short period but behind that figure is the fact that many animals are being cut severely (to as little as €3/kg) for not meeting a rapidly tightening spec.

There is also huge anger among store producers and marts that Northern Ireland finishers have been deterred from buying cattle in the Republic because of residency rules. Farmers need options to sell store and finished cattle in the North and in Britain. While Stena have opened a direct route to Wales from Rosslare, Irish controlled meat plants in the UK are seemingly refusing to handle Irish born cattle.

Farmers are also concerned that meat processors are using their own feedlots along with rented units to increase their control of supply and demand with a view to manipulating price downwards.

For many years now, there has been a belief that there is a cartel operating in the beef sector. We have seen shady practices uncovered in the Beef Tribunal many years ago with no consequences for those involved, and recently we have seen echoes of that with the horsemeat scandal.

Minister Coveney cannot turn a blind eye to what’s going on any longer. It is ludicrous to suggest that farmers are in any position to negotiate with meat factories under the current Wild West market. That’s why we need now to examine how to impose order and regulate the beef trade. ICSA has suggested that this needs a beef regulator with real teeth. Free markets without regulation are what we had in the 19th century Wild West; it’s not a viable approach for a 21st century Government.”