The Beef Plan Movement’s negotiator Eoin Donnelly has sent a letter to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed, following his spokesperson outlining that the minister “can not legally have any role in determining the prices for beef or any other commodity”.
In the letter, Donnelly asked Minister Creed to confirm that this is accurate. He highlighted what the Beef Plan believes is “the continued absence of direct contact” from Minister Creed or the department on such matters and further noted the Beef Plan is having to rely on “third hand information”.
Continuing, the letter reiterated: “For the avoidance of doubt we contest in the strongest possible terms that we have not asked you or your department to have any role in determining the price/kg for beef.
“The price paid between a farmer and a processor is a private matter between those two parties in the course of doing business together.
From the outset of this protest we have consistently and unequivocally stated that no one is permitted to discuss price.
“No target price/kg can be asked for as by doing so it may be considered price fixing by the competition authority.”
What the Beef Plan wants
The letter also noted: “So there is no confusion on this matter, in our response to MII [Meat Industry Ireland] on August 2, we have requested MII to present a proposal outlining what its members intend to do that returns a cost of production plus a margin to beef farmers in the context that the consumer is now paying more for beef in the shops while the farmer is being paid considerably less.”
Concluding, the letter stressed that The Beef Plan Movement “is available to talk”, but added that “until there is satisfactory progress towards resolving the issues in the beef industry seen by our members; this protest will continue”.