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FARMERS MUST RETAIN CONTROL OF SUCKLER BRAND AND GRASS FED PGI

Oct 13, 2020 | Latest News, Press Releases | 0 comments

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13 OCTOBER 2020

ICSA president Edmond Phelan has said the twin track approach of a grass-fed PGI and a suckler brand has not been fully thought through. “ICSA cannot agree to a PGI which is designed without adequate regard for how it will lead to better prices for farmers nor could we agree to a suckler brand which could be completely controlled by meat factories. Unless there is a genuine strategy to deliver better returns to our members, there is no point,” he said.

Mr Phelan made his comments following the cancellation of yesterday’s scheduled meeting of the Beef Taskforce amid continuing disagreement on the issue.

Continuing Mr Phelan said, “The key sticking issue for ICSA is that any strategy must be farmer led and controlled. So far, all we have got from the Department is a wholly inadequate promise for a ‘monitoring committee’ which is not worth the paper it’s written on. The future of the suckler herd is desperately dependent on getting a premium price and this will only happen when the suckler farmer is central to the strategy. That’s why the ICSA has consistently argued for a suckler based PGI.”

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ICSA president Dermot Kelleher has said ICBF have gone too far with their changes to the beef breeding indexes regarding pedigree bulls. Commenting on the changes which came into effect this week Mr Kelleher said, “ICSA met with ICBF back in early November where we were reassured that no drastic changes would be made; this has turned out to be far from the case however. The changes are proving to have considerable ramifications for farmers participating in the SCEP scheme and indeed for the future of the suckler sector as a whole,” he said.

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