Irish farmers have over the past year looked with envy at the prices their counterparts in Britain got for their beef. However, the issue of price volatility is troubling farmers there as well and last Wednesday, 27 January, a forum was launched in Westminster to tackle this issue.
AHDB’s Volatility Forum gathered together industry experts including farmers, processors, retailers and trade associations to come up with practical solutions for businesses affected by uncertainty in markets across the agricultural supply chains.
A better understanding of the commodity cycle across the industry was deemed as the top priority, as well as its effect on agricultural business strategy.
A second point was the need to upskill the industry in its approach to assessing risk likelihoods, effects and prioritisation.
Irish beef forum
Jack Watts, lead analyst with AHDB, said: “Commodity markets are both highly complex and delicately balanced as we have seen to some extremes across agricultural sectors in recent times.
Watts said that some of the key mechanisms for the forum to explore were formula pricing, derivatives and forward contracts. He also added that “there is unlikely to be a one-size-fits-all solution to managing volatility and it certainly won’t happen overnight.
In Ireland, we have had the Beef Forum in place since 2014 but, in truth, progress has been modest in solving the strategic issues of our industry so far. The forum was warned off discussing price by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission – the fundamental issue for beef farmers and no real progress has been made in tackling the specification issue other than a short moratorium for heavy cattle. We will monitor and report on progress and achievements in the British variant.
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Beef trade struggles in France
Weight penalties and competition causing concern
Irish farmers have over the past year looked with envy at the prices their counterparts in Britain got for their beef. However, the issue of price volatility is troubling farmers there as well and last Wednesday, 27 January, a forum was launched in Westminster to tackle this issue.
AHDB’s Volatility Forum gathered together industry experts including farmers, processors, retailers and trade associations to come up with practical solutions for businesses affected by uncertainty in markets across the agricultural supply chains.
A better understanding of the commodity cycle across the industry was deemed as the top priority, as well as its effect on agricultural business strategy.
A second point was the need to upskill the industry in its approach to assessing risk likelihoods, effects and prioritisation.
Irish beef forum
Jack Watts, lead analyst with AHDB, said: “Commodity markets are both highly complex and delicately balanced as we have seen to some extremes across agricultural sectors in recent times.
Watts said that some of the key mechanisms for the forum to explore were formula pricing, derivatives and forward contracts. He also added that “there is unlikely to be a one-size-fits-all solution to managing volatility and it certainly won’t happen overnight.
In Ireland, we have had the Beef Forum in place since 2014 but, in truth, progress has been modest in solving the strategic issues of our industry so far. The forum was warned off discussing price by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission – the fundamental issue for beef farmers and no real progress has been made in tackling the specification issue other than a short moratorium for heavy cattle. We will monitor and report on progress and achievements in the British variant.
Read more
Beef trade struggles in France
Weight penalties and competition causing concern
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