The Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) has confirmed that it will continue its protest at Bord Bia headquarters which is now in its 19th day.

It was anticipated that the row between Bord Bia and the IFA would come to an end following Friday's stakeholder meeting convened by Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon.

However, IFA president Francie Gorman claimed that the Minister refused to make any proposal to resolve the substantive issue around the loss of farmer confidence in the chair of Bord Bia.

“The Minister and Bord Bia’s ‘kick the can down the road’ approach will not resolve this dispute, which is very regrettable for everyone. There is a massive disconnect between farmers and the corporate leadership in Bord Bia,” he said.

Ireland’s food exports, Gorman added, are built on the back of the 55,000 farmers who are part of Bord Bia’s Quality Assurance (QA) schemes and audits.

'Shattered'

“The QA schemes are a partnership between farmers, processors, customer-facing businesses and Bord Bia. That partnership is being shattered.

“Farmers will not have confidence in Bord Bia while the chair’s company is importing Brazilian beef and chicken.

"Now it has also emerged that his company is not even part of the Bord Bia food processing QA scheme, despite the Bord Bia website saying it was. This is simply not credible,” he said.

The IFA has said that it remains willing to engage with the Minister, Bord Bia or other parties to try to resolve this dispute with a view to restoring confidence in Bord Bia.