Farmers and farm organisations in Britain are heaping the pressure on three of their retail chains to stock more British beef in the wake of a collapse in prices across the Irish Sea.

British beef prices pulled back between 4p and 10p this week on the back of a 7p drop last week, meaning that prices have fallen from £3.36/kg a fortnight ago to £3.18/kg this week.

The presence of approximately 80,000t of Irish beef on British retail shelves is being attributed by some as the reason for the price collapse.

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However, despite this fall, British retailers have not reduced the margin it takes from a kilo of beef. At the back end of 2013, retailers were taking an average margin of £2.76/kg of beef, with those margins having risen to £3.38/kg for the first four months of 2014. This means that farmers are receiving the lowest price from retailers in over two years.

It is these high margins, and not the increase in Irish beef into British retail outlets, that is the primary contributing factor in the beef price collapse.

This has been echoed by the Ulster Farmers Union (UFU) in recent days.

“The current beef price is completely unsustainable and this continued volatility is making it exceptionally difficult for farmers to plan for the future. Farmers are very angry; there seems to be a complete lack of understanding from retailers and processors that rearing beef cattle is a long-term business,” said Robert Davison, chairman of the UFU’s beef and lamb committee.

However, unrest is growing among sections of the farming community. The Farmers for Action group in Britain has again reiterated its plan to protest at retail outlets over the price collapse. Other groups, including the National Farmers Union (NFU), are running campaigns to encourage the British public to buy more British beef.

Imports

However, as an Irish Farmers Journal investigation found out in May, Britain is only 70% self-sufficient in beef and needs to import beef from countries like Ireland to meet demand.

Last week, three of the four major retailers in Britain – Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s – all confirmed they would continue to stock Irish beef despite some unrest.