Beef processors ABP has denied that it is importing large quantities of Polish beef into one of its secondary processing units in England.

ABP’s rebuttal comes the morning after nearly 100 British beef farmers protested at outside the facility in Shrewsbury. In a statement, ABP said there is no foundation in the claims. They went on to say that the beef being imported from Poland is going to a neighbouring processing plant and not to theirs.FFA (Farmers for Action), organisers of the protest, have raised concerns that just over a year after the horsemeat saga, Britain appears to be importing more beef from Poland – the source of the horsemeat which caused the scandal.

The British beef price has been on a slide in recent weeks, falling more than 20p in a fortnight. Prices have fallen from £3.36/kg a fortnight ago to £3.18/kg this week.

Groups such as the FFA and the National Farmers Union (NFU) have also questioned in recent weeks the volume of Irish beef on British retail shelves in the wake of their price collapse. Ireland exports in the region of 250,000t of carcase weight beef to Britain with 80,000t of that ending up on retail shelves.

Britain is only approximately 70% self-sufficient in beef production and needs to import from markets such as Ireland to meet demand.

However, as reported in this week’s Irish Farmers Journal, three of the four main retail chains have confirmed they will continue to stock Irish beef despite unrest from British farmers.

Meanwhile, the IFA and a group of British farm organisations will meet on Monday to discuss their respective beef price issues. This comes after the various associations held a conference call last Wednesday.