Farmers 'entitled to expect minister to critically examine beef trade'

No one expects Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed, to intervene on beef prices – but farmers are entitled to expect the minister to critically examine the “lop-sided” beef trade, according to the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA).

Responding to the comments made to AgriLand by the minister’s representative, ICMSA president Pat McCormack said:

“Farmers are perfectly entitled to expect the minister to examine critically an utterly lop-sided beef trade that had placed all the advantages on the side of factories and then retailers, while all the burden – regulatory and costs – fell on the farmers.”

McCormack said that it is far too easy for people to throw up their hands and try and categorise the present chaos within the Irish beef sector as the market is “working itself out” or some signal of the underlying anxiety caused by the increasingly likely prospect of losing our biggest market in 90-odd days.

The truth, said McCormack, is that even if both of those emergencies were resolved in the morning the flaws and defects that are built into the sector would ensure that we’d be back here again in six months or sooner.

“With all due respect to Minister Creed and his office, everyone knows that it’s not his job to set beef prices and no one – certainly not the ICMSA – is asking him to do that.

“But there are very specific things he can and should do that might restore some confidence to a sector.

For a start, he needs to ensure that a strong live export market is actually in place and functioning for heavier cattle and that a Brexit compensation package for all farmers involved in beef production is in place for the losses being suffered today and since May.

“He can also ensure that the Beef Emergency Aid Measure (BEAM) is amended to allow all farmers the option to apply and that the ‘add-on’ regulations in BEAM are eliminated,” said McCormack.

“No-one is asking Minister Creed to set prices – but ICMSA doesn’t think it is too much to ask him to address the issues of concern that are under his remit and he certainly can do something in relation to Brexit losses, BEAM and live exports.

“He could also set up a review that would at least ask why everyone else – besides the factory owners and corporate retailers – cannot make any kind of margin on a multi-billion euro sector,” McCormack concluded.