Minister called on to 'get involved' as beef prices fall
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon has been called on to "get involved" to address the recent fall in beef prices.
The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association (ICMSA) has said the recent fall in prices has left farmers "at breaking point".
Michael O'Connell, the ICMSA's livestock chairperson, claimed that the price cuts seen over the last seven to eight weeks "amount to systematic destruction of the farmers supplying cattle".
He also said that the ICMSA "[does] not believe for one minute that the factories could not have absorbed some of the hit themselves".
"It is time for this catastrophe to be addressed and ICMSA is calling for an all-of-industry approach, not just a select few, that will get to the bottom of what is happening and why," O'Connell said.
He added: "ICMSA is receiving calls on a weekly basis all pointing to income wipe-out and, set against current stagnant milk price, livelihoods are being hammered for no reason and without any rational explanation."
He claimed that the fall in prices this year is "both more inexplicable and unsustainable" than the period of low prices in 2019.
"The most obvious point to make is that in 2019 we didn’t have the same scale of price cuts but neither had we the kind of high beef prices in the previous year; that’s led to a position where permanent damage is being inflicted on a cohort of farmers that will put them past the point-of-rescue," O'Connell said.
"At base prices of €6.20 and €6.30c/kg, cattle are losing a fortune; they are not covering what they cost to buy – much less the increased costs at farm level," he added.
"As a sector, we keep on asking ourselves why we can't get young people to commit to farming. Here's your answer.
O'Connell claimed that the sector needs to "come together and discuss the matter in detail".
"Confidence amongst beef farmers is at an all-time low, the bills following on from the spring are mounting, tax bills from last year are looming and the increase in the costs of silage production is causing another headache," he said.
"The developments in the trade this spring is leaving a very anxious few months for beef farmers as they continue to see the price of beef cut 10c per week.
"We are at that point now and if Minister Heydon has any interest in maintaining a beef sector worthy of the name, much less developing it, then he’ll need to get much more personally involved than has been the case so far and get everyone involved around a table for some long overdue home truths about the Irish beef sector," the ICMSA livestock chair said.
"We are not asking for special treatment. We only want a fair price and a viable income for family farms. That surely isn't too much to ask," O'Connell added.
