There has been an agreement arising from the beef talks to establish an appeals system for farmers in relation to the manual grading of carcasses, AgriLand understands.
The plans – which have not yet been officially confirmed – come on the second day of talks between farmer groups, processor representatives, and officials from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
AgriLand understands that a farmer would be able to make an appeal to a factory if they feel the kill sheet returned to them is not representative of the animals(s) they presented.
If a farmer is dissatisfied with the result of an appeal made to a factory, they will have the additional option of submitting a further appeal directly to the department, which will reexamine the farmer’s concerns.
AgriLand understands that the proposal will be reviewed in six months to examine the practicality of such a process.
It is understood that representatives from Meat Industry Ireland have raised concerns that the department does not have the staff to oversee and conduct such a process, while department representatives said it would be feasible for it to process appeals on a short time frame.
The potential new development comes after the Beef Plan Movement made a number of suggestions relating to pricing models in the sector.
These include putting “an agreement in place where the retailers, processors, traders and primary producers are all allocated a fair share of the retail price for their respective involvement in the beef supply chain”.
The movement is calling for “an accredited economist” to devise a “fair distribution” of the retail cost, based on production costs of the various components of the supply chain.
