The ongoing farmer protests are being described as “illegal blockades” by Meat Industry Ireland (MII), which claims they are “putting Irish jobs at risk”.
The statement issued by MII this evening, Tuesday, August 27, added that the current situation is “putting exports to existing customers at risk and damaging our ability to win new markets for Irish beef”.
According to MII: “These blockades threaten the livelihoods of all stakeholders in the sector.”
Continuing, the statement said: “The blockading activity – which is stopping both cattle entering and meat consignments exiting an increasing number of beef processing facilities – has left companies with no alternative but to seek legal protection for the business from the court.”
Thousands of jobs are being put at risk; hard won customers for Irish beef cannot be served and will quickly look for alternative supply.
“New market opportunities in countries such as China will be prevented from expanding and farmers with market ready cattle are being stopped from processing them,” the statement continued.
“The price currently paid to Irish farmers for their cattle is the average price paid to their European counterparts,” the statement said.
“We export 90% of the beef we produce to over 45 markets across Europe and beyond.
“The overall beef market is currently extremely challenging and the action taken by those blockading is in no one’s interest.”
Extensive negotiations
Over the course of the last two weeks, MII has said it engaged in “extensive negotiations” with other stakeholders and arrived at a consensus on “a range of issues that met a large part of the demands set out by the Beef Plan”.
At the conclusion of this process, all parties supported the consensus, but unfortunately Beef Plan withdrew from that agreement last weekend.
Concluding, the statement noted: “In the circumstances, processors were left with no other option but to seek legal remedies in the courts to protect their businesses against the damage being caused by illegal blockades.”