Meat Industry Ireland has defended the current cattle price. Speaking to AgriLand, Cormac Healy, director of MII, said: “Prices have come back because of competitiveness issues in the European marketplace.”
He said the cattle price in Ireland has been significantly ahead of Europe and he said this is unsustainable for a prolonged period when it comes to selling beef into these markets.
“Finished cattle prices here in Ireland remains 30-50c/kg ahead of the price in most of the key EU beef markets including Germany, Spain and Italy. Despite the fall in price in recent weeks, today’s price remains six to eight per cent ahead of last year and is still equivalent to 107/108 per cent of the EU average price. This still represents a strong performance for Irish beef given that we are net exporters.”
Meat Industry Ireland is the sector association responsible for representation of the business interests of the beef and lamb processing sector in Ireland.
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