Farmers fighting for their future in beef talks

Local farmers are anxiously awaiting the outcome of the beef talks, which are said to be at a ‘sensitive stage’.

The wider membership of the Beef Plan Movement has yet to be told ‘what’s on the table’, following marathon talks, which lasted 13 hours last Monday.

“Everything just hangs in the balance,” Kevin O’Brien, chairperson of the Galway Beef Plan Movement told the Connacht Tribune.

The nub of the problem is plummeting prices paid to beef farmers – they’re getting between €200 and €250 less per animal now than a year ago.

Negotiators for BPM listed thirteen issues that they want addressed at the talks including reviewing upper age limits to influence the price for steers, heifers and young bulls; grid price differentiation between grades; and insurance paid by farmers for delivery to processors.

The national strategy team of the Beef Plan Movement (BPM) was this week mulling over the details of the negotiations it had at the Department of Agriculture Backweston Offices in Kildare on Monday, involving Meat Industry Ireland (MII), who represent processors.

The BPM national strategy team then met in Athlone on Tuesday evening, to discuss the previous day’s talks, and took a decision to keep the contents of the negotiations private, for now. The final document may go to a vote of the BPM membership before it’s signed off.

See full coverage in this week’s Connacht Tribune.