New Year storm on stagnant prices is looming

 A STORMY meeting of the Beef Taskforce looks to be in store for Thursday, January 9 next, as the gap widens even further between beef prices at home and the UK – now hovering around the 50c mark.

While factory prices have edged up over the past week or so by 5c – or up to 10c per kg in cases – there has been no ‘surge’ in the base price, despite months of protests and discussions.

Galway IFA Chairperson, Anne Mitchell, said that the non-movement on price from the factories was most disappointing and especially so in the context of what cattle were making across Europe and especially so in the UK.

“Cattle farmers continue to lose money and cannot survive with the prices currently on the table from the factories. We would like to see the Beef Taskforce meeting brought forward from January 9th because of the urgency of the situation,” said Anne Mitchell.

IFA President, Joe Healy, said that the gap between the Irish price for cattle and the Bord Bia benchmark price had now widened to 24c/kg with the ‘UK gap’ now standing at 50c/kg.

He said that the IFA were once again calling on Agriculture Minister, Michael Creed, to intervene on the price deadlock situation which was continuing to financially cripple farmers.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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