Beef Farmers Sold Out by Factories & EU Bureaucrats

IFA Livestock Chair Declan Hanrahan said the relentless cuts to beef prices by factories must stop.

He said the latest published Bord Bia Prime Export Benchmark price shows a gap of 45c/kg with our beef price from two weeks ago. This time lag in publishing important market information for farmers is unacceptable and Bord Bia must up their game.

“In the absence of up-to-date information from Bord Bia, we must look at the individual markets. There is pressure in the marketplace, but the reality is the latest UK price is still 46c/kg above ours at the equivalent of €7.48/kg for R3 steers. The EU young bull price is running over 20c/kg above our prices, showing the capacity for stronger beef prices from our two most important markets.

“Factories must stand a lot stronger in the marketplace and return higher prices to farmers. Bord Bia need to start justifying the money farmers pay them to promote our beef against these cheap non-Quality Assured imports in the UK and EU markets.”

“Irish beef farmers are producing beef to the highest standards in the world; have made significant investments in cattle; and we must be paid for the work we do and the investments we have made,” he said.

He said beef farmers operate in a low-income vulnerable sector and do not have the capacity for this type of price volatility.

Factories and Bord Bia cannot just sit back and allow Quality Assured Irish beef to be devalued and undermined in our key export markets by weak selling and increased volumes of cheap southern hemisphere beef that has been given access to our markets.

Declan Hanrahan said yesterday’s announcement by the EU Commission is a wakeup call for those that think cheap unregulated southern hemisphere beef imports are suitable to replace Irish and EU beef production. Factories and Bord Bia must step up to the plate and use these latest concerns around antibiotic usage in Brazilian beef to return the full value of Irish beef.

IFA highlighted this issue to the EU Commission last year in a comprehensive report following our latest investigation of production standards in Brazil.

The Commission chose to ignore the findings then in a race to push through a Mercosur deal that was a sellout of not only Irish and EU farmers, but also EU consumers. 

He said factories and Bord Bia must now take full advantage of these latest developments to reposition Irish beef prices at the levels available in the UK and EU markets.