ICSA beef chair Edmund Graham has called on the meat factories and Bord Bia to explain how a €1/kg differential between British and Irish prime cattle can be justified. “This shows that factories are fleecing farmers. This differential is the highest in living memory and comes at a time when prices on the continent are moving upwards. In fact, our price for prime beef (heifers, steers, young bulls) is now a good 30c/kg behind the EU average,” he said.

“All of this has come at a time when costs are on a completely different level to a few years ago. If that was not enough, farmers are being asked to do more and more on climate and other environmental indicators. The reality is that there is now no hope of asking beef farmers to do anything in terms of lowering the age of slaughter because factories just keep fleecing them at every available opportunity.” 

“The €1/kg differential represents a new low in terms of price. ICSA is calling for an explanation for this. ICSA is also writing to the new Food Regulator to look into how such a differential can be justified.”

ENDS