No sign of beef impasse ending

AN ongoing slump in the UK beef market seems likely to see the continuation of the ongoing beef price crisis in Ireland, according to IFA leaders this week.

A surplus in Irish supplies that is likely to continue until late autumn and the fact that large numbers of cattle were ‘held back’ on flooded UK farms and fed indoors with cheap grain this Spring, is also contributing to the beef crisis.

This week Fianna Fáil Spokesperson on Agriculture, Éamon Ó Cuív called on the Government to establish a Beef Regulator to deal with the collapse in Irish beef prices.

He said that with the Irish beef industry worth €2 billion annually to the Irish economy and employing 100,000 farmers, urgent measures were now needed to save the industry.

“As this whole crisis has escalated and deepened, the Government has utterly failed to take any decisive or remedial action.  In fact, Minister Simon Coveney failed to show up for two separate debates on the beef crisis last week.

“Fianna Fáil is using its Private Members’ Business  this week to highlight the beef crisis and call for a beef regulator. A regulator should be entrusted with ensuring that a small handful of processors are not allowed to unfairly dominate the market.

“Any regulator needs to be given real powers and resources to oversee the sector and to make direct recommendations to Government. He could also examine the possibility of establishing a code of conduct for retailers, which would give farmers some certainty,” said Deputy Ó Cuív.

Connacht IFA Chairman, Tom Turley, said that Minister Coveney’s Food Harvest proposals were now an utter shambles with no farmer having any faith in his future plans.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.