13th June 2014

ICSA Honorary Secretary James Reynolds has demanded that Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney takes immediate action to address the worsening beef crisis.

“This crisis is deepening by the minute and is now having a huge negative impact on the market for weanling calves and store cattle. ICSA is the only farm organisation to call on the Minister to appoint an independent regulator for the meat processing industry, with extensive powers of investigation and enforcement, but to date there has been no movement on this issue.”

Part of the Minister’s reaction to the crisis was to set up a Beef Round-Table Forum to which all stakeholders were invited, and this was initially welcomed by ICSA. However, following two meetings and a report by Michael Dowling, farmers have not seen any improvement in the situation.

“Beef processors, while participating in the talks, have refused to actively engage with beef producers,” said Mr. Reynolds. “In fact, they have shown a complete lack of respect to other stakeholders, continuing to drive down beef prices to unsustainable levels. The Quality Assurance Scheme has become a tool to further crucify farmers. Furthermore, there is a complete lack of transparency around the percentage of animals that actually qualify for the quality assurance bonus. The restrictions on cattle movements and residency periods are also a device to undermine price by limiting competition at marts.”

“This income crisis comes just as Teagasc have released the results of their Farm Income Survey which shows that average incomes for cattle and sheep farmers are locked into an unsustainably low bracket between €9,500 and €11,500, which, in many cases, means that farmers would be better off on the dole.”