Members of the Beef Plan Movement are seeking clarity and verification from the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue in relation to an EU trademark application for a ‘Grass Fed’ logo.
In a statement issued this week, Beef Plan members said they wished to know how the ‘Grass fed’ logo, if successfully registered, is going to be used.
“We need clarity if the logo is going to be used in conjunction with the PGI for ‘Irish Grass-fed beef’, which an application has been recently submitted for to the EU commission by the Department of Agriculture on behalf of Bord Bia.
Primary producers require clarification on how a ‘Grass fed’ logo is going to be used – and by whom?
The Beef Plan statement contended that if a ‘Grass Fed’ logo will be used unilaterally on a range of products and/or in conjunction with other branded items, to include Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) brands, “this will devalue the premium associated to the niche products with PGI status”.
“The dilution of branded logos across multi brands will not deliver any premium back along the supply chain to the primary producer,” the document added.
“We feel that Minister McConalogue needs to explain and verify how Bord Bia intends to protect farmers and ensure that a premium is realised and returned to the beef producers of Ireland.
We are gravely concerned that, during the last Beef Task Force meeting, this topic was not openly discussed, nor the information around the ‘Grass Fed’ logo shared among all representatives.
The statement claimed that, at the last Beef Task Force sitting, after 10 hours of deliberation, farm organisations finally agreed that farmers must have control of the PGI status for ‘Irish Grass-Fed Beef’.
“A PGI monitoring group was established with a farmer majority representation and with a representative from each of the six farming organisations being able to decide on behalf of their respective members on PGI business.
“Now, we have Bord Bia in the midst of producing a logo, which will undermine what was agreed at the last taskforce sitting. We await the minister’s reply,” the letter concluded.