Efforts to resume beef stakeholder talks do “not go far enough” – and should take place this weekend instead of Monday, according to the Beef Plan Movement.
In a statement from the Beef Plan’s national committee, it was noted that, while the organisation welcomes Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Michael Creed’s efforts to restart talks between the the representative bodies on Monday, it feels that it does not go far enough.
In a statement to AgriLand, the national committee said:
The Beef Plan Movement wishes to have talks commencing early this weekend between factory owners, retailers and farm bodies.
“Factory owners have expressed a desire to commence talks early this weekend,” the Beef Plan added.
The statement outlined that the Beef Plan Movement is willing to engage and facilitate early talks this weekend with all stakeholders.
However, it stressed that these talks “must include factory owners or their agents, retail representatives, and Meat Industry Ireland (MII) in round-table talks to facilitate an end to this current crisis”.
The farm group claimed that talks cannot be constructive “when parties have a legal threat over them”.
It added that retailers have a “corporate social responsibility to farmers who double as their customers in rural towns”.
Minister Creed and the Government on the day must utilise all avenues within influence to ensure that this is facilitated.
“The Beef Plan Movement is willing to enter these talks with factory owners, and retailers if needs be, to break the current impasse and to secure a future for beef farmers in Ireland,” the statement concluded.