The deals involving Dunbia and Dawn Meats, and ABP and Fane Valley, have both been approved by various competition authorities in Ireland, Britain and Europe.

The new tie-up between Waterford-based Dawn Meats and Dunbia involves the sale of Dunbia’s two sites in the Republic of Ireland to Dawn, and a new joint venture in the UK, to be managed by Dunbia, but with Dawn holding a majority share. The new chief executive of the UK business will be Jim Dobson, with Dawn Meats’ chief Niall Browne taking the role of executive chair.

It is understood that the deal has effectively allowed Jack Dobson, who previously co-owned Dunbia, to sell his share. In total, across Britain and Ireland, the businesses will process approximately 900,000 cattle and 2.6m sheep annually, which is a scale only matched by ABP.

In a statement the UK Competition and Markets Authority said that it approved the deal because the companies do not currently compete strongly for the purchase of livestock and would continue to face strong competition from alternative suppliers in the supply of meat.

Meanwhile, the deal allowing ABP to take a 50% stake alongside Fane Valley in Linden Foods was approved by the European Commission last week. It ruled that there would still be sufficient buyers for farmers’ cattle after the deal.

However, the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) has maintained that the new joint venture will be met with mixed opinions from farmers, given ongoing concerns about competition for cattle in NI.

While recognising that the deal could bring operational efficiencies, UFU deputy president Victor Chestnutt pointed out that its success will be dependent on whether Linden is able to deliver sustainable prices to farmers.

He also challenged the wider beef processing sector to take more seriously the possibility of offering longer-term contracts to farmers.

“The livestock processing sector in NI needs to develop new payment conditions which can offer farmers protection from market volatility,” he said.