One of the farm organisations that participated in the Beef Market Taskforce today (Thursday, December 17) has said it is “extremely disappointed” with the Grant Thornton report into market and customer requirements relating to in-spec bonuses.
A draft version of the report was shown to members of the Beef Market Taskforce earlier today.
Responding to its findings, Edmond Phelan, outgoing president of the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA), said: “The report does not provide any evidence of independent measurement of consumer preferences in any market.
Instead, we are asked to believe a limited overview of interviews with stakeholders, predominantly in the UK, who are scrambling to find varied dubious justifications for maintaining the 30 months and ‘4 residencies’ penalties.
“Whereas the report accepts that the genesis of the 30-month rule comes from a panic twenty years ago about BSE…it now seems that some retailers are trying to justify the 30-month rule on the basis of an evolving perception within the market that finishing cattle earlier is supportive of the ‘green agenda’,” he claimed.
Phelan argued that this point in the report was not backed up with research, and that there was “no evidence” that consumers agree with the point.
Phelan said he was “astonished” by the report’s apparent claim that other European markets were exhibiting “more satisfactory performance in achieving desired animal welfare standards”.
Suckler and dairy farmers are not generally in a position to finish beef cattle, so that’s just not possible. Movements are part of our system and we need to explain that this is not a welfare issue.
Separately from the report, the ICSA also challenged the representatives of the meat processors on beef prices, saying prices “have been so poor in the second half of the year compared to the price fat cattle are making in the marts”.
“Our price has fallen well behind the UK price and it does not reflect the big increase in demand at retail level for beef. Even allowing for catering market disruption, the gap between UK and Irish farmer price has expanded substantially,” the ICSA president said.