Cattle

Beef Prices Must Reflect Cost of Production – IFA

IFA National Livestock Chair Brendan Golden said attempts by factories to reduce quotes is unacceptable. He said beef farmers do not have the capacity to absorb the production cost increases associated with cattle finishing and factories must be stronger in the market place to reflect this in beef prices.

The IFA National Livestock Chair said the Prime Export Benchmark Price for the latest week shows a price differential of 22c/kg with our beef price reflecting the returns available from our export markets for beef, there is clearly capacity in the market place to return higher prices and close this gap.

He noted tight supplies and strong global demand for beef is underpinning the trade.

Brendan Golden said winter finishers are in the process of making key decisions for the coming months, factories must reflect the realities of the current market in stronger prices now and offer winter finishers minimum price guarantees for their cattle for this Winter and next Spring.

Teagasc have identified the break-even price for winter finishing will need to be €5.85/kg before any margin is factored in.

He said meat factories and multi-national retailers are acutely aware of this and must provide surety for farmers in the form of minimum price guarantees to maintain our hard-earned consistent year-round supply of cattle.

Brendan Golden highlighted that Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue has a critical role to play in supporting suckler and beef farmers.

He said the Minister must provide suckler and beef farmers with direct targeted support to offset the feed costs for this winter. The Minister must also provide for longer term direct supports for suckler farmers to bring the payment rate for suckler cows to €300 a cow and provide €100 an animal for cattle rearing and finishing farmers.

Brendan Golden said our most productive farmers are the most exposed to the current inputs crisis and are the sector of farmers who will lose most in the flawed CAP Policy that will come into effect next year.

He said suckler and beef farming is a recognised low-income vulnerable sector that does not have the capacity to absorb the input cost increases experienced this year and must be to the fore in Government supports in next week’s budget.

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