A “shortsighted” approach by factories is undermining the confidence of beef farmers who have made a substantial investment in finishing cattle, a farm organisation has warned.
Brendan Golden, Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) livestock chair, said factories have exerted “relentless pressure” on prices over the last number of weeks and this cannot continue.
“The failure of the market and of factories and Bord Bia to return beef prices to farmers that reflect production costs must be addressed,” Golden said.
He said that beef farmers have been subject to “more and more demands in relation to climate targets” but at the same time policy makers are relentlessly pursuing cheap food prices and also potentially undermining Irish markets in trade deals.
Golden believes that deals like the controversial EU-Mercosur bloc free trade agreement promotes production in parts of the world that have “no environmental standards” particularly in relation to the destruction of rain forests that is taking place.
Beef farmers
The IFA livestock chair said in his opinion the Minister for Agriculture, Charlie McConalogue, has a key role to play in light of this deal “to protect and support” the incomes of beef farmers.
“Beef farmers cannot continue to make investments in beef production at the levels now required with input costs, without a guarantee on return,” he warned.
According to Golden farmers with finished cattle to sell now have the most expensive cattle of the year and yet are faced with delays in slaughter and also falling prices.
He said that this is “unacceptable” and factories “can and must do” more for farmers.
Meanwhile the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA) has also sounded a warning over current factory beef prices which the organisation said are having a “devastating effect at farm level”.
ICSA Beef chair Edmund Graham has warned meat factories that their “continued assault” on beef prices is also causing immense frustration among farmers.
“The situation with beef prices has reached a tipping point. Producing beef only to get hammered by the processors and come out making a loss is completely unsustainable,” Graham said.