Attempts by factories to take advantage of the weather difficulties farmers are experiencing and not offer a better beef price is unacceptable, the Irish Farmers’ Association has said (IFA).

IFA national livestock chair Declan Hanrahan said factories holding back on beef price will not wash with farmers and must stop.

“Factories must reflect the full value of our key markets by increasing beef prices to offset these additional costs on farms and to retain confidence in the live trade.

“Market conditions justify further price increases, supplies are expected to be extremely tight over the coming weeks and months; farmers should not buy into any negative propaganda from factories or their agents, sell hard and demand further beef price increases,” he said.

Demand

Hanrahan added market performance and the supplies of finished cattle justify stronger beef prices.

“The prime export benchmark price increased a further 4c/kg in the latest Bord Bia report, reflecting the demand for beef in our key export markets.

“Our prices are currently over 10c/kg behind this time last year, while beef prices in our largest market, the UK are running over 12c/kg ahead of last year for the latest reported week,” he said.

The IFA Livestock chair added that factories need to increase prices.

“Bord Bia had predicted supplies to be back 30,000 to 40,000 cattle for the year, already when adjusted over 24,000 more cattle have been processed to-date this year which significantly reduces the numbers available for factories in the coming weeks and months.

“The strong performance of live exports to-date for stores and weanlings and the projections for the year will also reduce the numbers of cattle available to factories further.

“Suckler and beef farmers are incurring huge additional expense due to the weather conditions, with delayed turnout and increased feed requirements on farms which will have knock on effects for the year,” he said.