Beef prices are “stagnant” and have moved up just 24c/kg since the beginning of the year according to the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA).
According to latest figures from Bord Bia the Irish composite cattle price is currently sitting at €5.07 compared to the export benchmark price of €4.81.
According to Brendan Golden, IFA livestock chair, the most expensive cattle are “those produced by winter finishers”.
But Golden said beef prices do not reflect the high input costs that farmers have been battling against.
He has said that Teagasc figures “clearly show prices need to be in the region of €6.00/kg for winter finishers to be covered”.
Golden added:
“This is against a background of steady and consistent beef price increases in our key market – the UK – where prices have increased by over 50c/kg over the same period.”
According to the IFA demand for beef is strong in the UK market, with estimated spend up 9% on beef in the past three months and volumes down slightly by 1.7%.
The IFA livestock chair has also anticipated that demand will increase over the coming weeks against the backdrop of supplies of finished cattle tightening.
Golden said that as a result “price increases must be on the table”.
Bord Bia had previously predicted that supplies will fall back this year by 50,000 to 60,000 cattle, and that the first six months of the year would see the majority of that reduction.
But the IFA said supplies only reduced by 30,000 up to the end of April which the farming body has said “points to a significant tightening in numbers of finished cattle for the next two to three months”.
It has estimated that this would bring weekly throughput below 30,000 head at a time “when demand is strong for beef in our key export market”.
According to Golden Irish farmers must now secure stronger beef prices .
“This positive supply, demand balance in the coming weeks and months must return higher beef prices to farmers,” he said.