Irish beef processors have been urged to “reopen and to come forward with a strong base price”.
In a statement issued this morning, Thursday, September 19, the president of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) said: “This would help to start the process of building some sort of trust and to get the industry up and running.”
Healy added that base price was discussed during the beef talks at the weekend, however, “no price could be agreed due to Ireland’s flawed competition law”.
The IFA and other farm organisations raised the issue with the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed, at the talks.
We stressed that the success of the agreement on the ground would very much depend on the factories approach on the base price.
“With the immediate gains in the agreement being around bonuses, the potential for factories to undermine these by manipulating the base price was an obvious concern.”
Reopen
Continuing, the IFA president stressed that the industry should “fully reopen”. He suggested that farmers with animals to sell should contact their factories and “drive the hardest possible bargain on the base price”.
The IFA will fully support any farmer who wants to sell their animals.
“The new beef price index will be available from this week and that should be a help in providing more transparency on cattle prices in the weeks ahead,” he said.
“Some other immediate gains were achieved in Sunday’s agreement, but much of what was agreed will take time to implement.
“The independent review of specifications, including; the 30-month age limit, the four-movements and the residency period will be very important for many farmers.
Concluding, Healy said: “The IFA is clear that if the review shows that these cannot be justified on the grounds of market access, then they should be abolished immediately.”