There is a major threat to Irish beef producers around a possible EU trade deal with the South American trading bloc Mercosur, farmers at the Irish Farmers Journal Beef Summit on Thursday heard.
Liam McHale, the IFA's director of European affairs, bluntly stated: “How can we import beef in from these countries - beef that does not meet the environmental and food safety standards of EU farmers.
"European farmers pay a high price to comply with these standards."
McHale said the majority of farmers would prefer their income from a marketplace, but the unfortunate fact is the marketplace wasn't delivering. This left farmers reliant on EU supports and protections.
He said the EU had shifted away from market supports, such as intervention, to direct payments.
Coupled payment
McHale stressed that to maintain and support the suckler cow sector, there would need to be an increase in targeted payments to those farmers.
An increased CAP budget would be the way to achieve this.
The option to introduce a coupled payment for suckler cows should be explored, he said.
Coupled payments across Europe
Of the seven EU countries that have a significant suckler herd, only two do not have a coupled payment for sucklers - Ireland and Germany.
France, which has a suckler herd of 4.1m cows, pays €150/cow.
The rate of decline in the French herd was 1.5% between 2017 and 2018. In Ireland, the rate of decline was was 3.5%.
Without targeted supports, income on suckler farms would struggle and cow numbers would fall, McHale warned.
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