10% of lamb that is processed at meat plants in the Republic of Ireland comes from Northern Ireland, according to sheepmeat and livestock sector manager with Bord Bia, Seamus McMenamin.
He was addressing farmers at a meeting organised by the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA) in Carrick-on-Shannon, Co. Leitrim last night (Tuesday, March 21) which was held to discuss the “crisis” in the sheep sector.
He agreed with ICSA Sheep chair, Sean McNamara, who said that “one in every five” lambs coming into plants in Ireland is coming from Northern Ireland or the UK, with McMenamin adding “that’s if you combine live and carcass form. 10% is coming in live, and maybe another 10% coming in carcass form”.
During a heated questions and answers session, McNamara told those in attendance: “The factories won’t pay us the price for our own lambs. We’re getting €6.30/kg, you go up to the north, there is is €15.60 being paid for New Zealand lamb.
“You go on about it being dear protein. It’s dear protein for people buying it in the supermarkets, but it’s not dear protein for us who are producing the lamb. We are taking the lowest price going, in any country.”
The Bord Bia representative was receptive to all the questions thrown at him and responded by stating: “I was invited here today to give you an overview of the market and our promotional activities.
“I understand you’re frustrated, but there is a lot of things you raised there that are beyond my control, beyond Bord Bia’s control.
“We’re going into the highest paying markets that are available. There is nothing more we can do to get product into the US and Chinese market. We’ve a suite of promotional activities there, ready to go, when we get products there, but as yet, we can’t do anything if we have no product there,” he explained.
McMenamin said it is down to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), and meat plants to ensure access for products.
Lamb price
Another farmer in the audience at last night’s meeting asked the Bord Bia representative if he felt that the marketing organisation is doing its job well.
He claimed: “We were told [by Bord Bia] that lamb or sheepmeat was the only product that was going to benefit from Brexit.
“It has turned out that it is the only product that went south [did poorly]. Where is the carbon footprint for New Zealand or Australian lamb coming into the EU market, competing against us at the moment?
“Electronic tagging was forced down our throats a number of years ago at roughly, a cost of €2.50/lamb going to the mart or the factory, plus €3-4 transport on top of that.
“We were told that this electronic tagging would get us access to China and the US, none of those two particular markets has materialised,” he added.
The farmer questioned why, if he is farming in north Leitrim or the Cavan/Monaghan border, and his wife is farming in Northern Ireland, she is getting more for her kilogram of lamb, coming in from Northern Ireland going through the meat plants in the Republic of Ireland (ROI).
“The northern lamb, when it comes down, it obviously has to comply with the country of origin labelling, so the lamb has to be clearly stated as ‘origin – Northern Ireland, or origin – UK,” McMenamin responded.
“There’s two bits there – one, is the labelling; that’s policed obviously by the department [DAFM]. When it comes down it has a UK stamp, if it’s coming in carcass form.
“If it’s coming here for processing, it has to be labelled ‘origin -Northern Ireland, processed – Ireland’ and sold as such. That’s an EU regulation that has to be complied with.”
He explained that it can therefore never carry a Bord Bia logo if it has mixed origin on the pack.
In relation to the Chinese and US markets, Seamus McMenamin responded by stating that getting individual meat plants approved in markets such as the US and China is a very technical process which is currently with Meat Industry Ireland (MII) and the DAFM.
He added that the plants were about to be approved for the Chinese market right before the Covid-19 pandemic, but due to the delay caused by the pandemic, the whole process had to start again.
Funding for sheep sector
Senior manager for beef and livestock with Bord Bia, Joe Burke was also in attendance at the meeting last night.
Responding to the farmer who said sheep farmers had been told that Brexit would be good for the sector, Burke said: “Look it, five years ago, none of us knew how Brexit was going to turn out. There was talks and risk of a ‘no-deal’ Brexit at the time. Thankfully that was avoided.”
Burke seemed to endorse the case being made by the ICSA for part of the Brexit Adjustment Reserve to be used to provide financial support to sheep farmers who are suffering as a result of Brexit.
“In the case of lamb, they [UK] are a competitor in the EU especially, so we actually have a situation… would there be a potential case to be made here as lamb producers and exporters that are disadvantaged as a result of Brexit?” Burke said.
“Particularly if, as Seamus has alluded to, the UK remains as able to import New Zealand lamb or Australian lamb… and still being able to export significant quantities of their own lamb, then that argument could certainly be made.”
Burke said Bord Bia would be able to supply all the background data and trade movements if needed.