The work that has been carried out on market access is not giving a return back to beef farmers, according to the president of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA), Joe Healy.
While Healy acknowledged the efforts put in by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed, in terms of securing market access, the IFA president urged the minister to call in the factories and to “tell them bluntly” to stop cutting the cattle price.
Cattle farmers would have expected “a lot more action” from Minister Creed and the Government in calling the factories to task on the cutting of prices, Healy added.
It’s time the minister demonstrated [that] he is on the farmers’ side.
The IFA president is of the opinion that the meat factories have “taken advantage” of their suppliers during the severe drought conditions by “unnecessarily” cutting cattle prices.
These price cuts have destabilised the beef market and eroded confidence in the sector, Healy added.
Beef farmers feel very let down by the factories.
Comparing the “negative approach” from the meat factories with the “much more supportive approach” from the dairy co-ops towards their respective suppliers, Healy highlighted the fact that many dairy co-ops are “paying drought top-ups on the milk price as well as subsidising feed supplies and providing additional credit facilities”.
‘Critical juncture’
Meanwhile, the IFA’s National Livestock Committee chairman – Angus Woods – believes that the factories can stabilise beef prices at this “critical juncture”.
Woods explained that the IFA has been meeting with factory management at local level around the country, highlighting the need for stability in the price.
Farmers cannot afford any further price cuts, as incomes are being washed away by increasing costs and falling price returns, Woods argued.
‘Wrong And Unjustified’
Defending the cuts to the beef price earlier this month, senior director with Meat Industry Ireland (MII) Cormac Healy denied that processors were “taking advantage” of the drought conditions.
Commenting on the situation at the beginning of the month, he said: “These trends are market-related and any suggestions that the recent price falls are due to processors taking advantage of drought conditions are simply wrong and unjustified.
“Everyone is acutely aware and understanding of the challenges at farm level at present, but laying the blame at the processors’ door is misguided.”