As farm organisations prepare to protest outside the Beef Forum this morning, the senior director of Meat Industry Ireland (MII) Cormac Healy has defended the price paid for cattle.

"Recent criticism of cattle prices does not fairly reflect the strong price paid throughout the year, with Irish cattle price running at 107% of EU average price year-to-date,” Healy said.

“Year-to-date price paid for Irish cattle remains ahead of last year and only in the last two weeks have current prices dropped below the corresponding period last year.

This situation prevails against a background of an additional 45,000 – 50,000 cattle

“This situation prevails against a background of an additional 45,000 – 50,000 cattle processed this year compared to 2017.

“This higher volume coincides with an already well-supplied EU market caused by higher than normal culling rates due to drought earlier in the year as well as an increase in import volumes into the EU of some 14%, primarily from competitively priced beef from Brazil and Argentina.”

Healy insisted that beef farmers and the industry had many shared concerns, including the threat of Brexit and Mercosur. He said that representatives from MII had never refused to engage with the Minister for Agriculture, his Department and industry stakeholders and that they would be present at the Beef Forum.

Protest

The IFA, ICMSA, ICSA and Macra na Feirme all intend to boycott the Beef Forum organised by the Department for industry stakeholders.

A perceived lack of competition and slip in prices has prompted the protest, with some beef farmers feeling undervalued by the industry.

There are also concerns about the future viability and quality of the national suckler herd as numbers decrease, but the influx of dairy beef continues to rise.

“Cattle farmers are raging with the way Minister Creed has allowed the factories to run amok with systematic cattle price cuts, inflicting severe losses on farmers, who are on their knees financially,” president of the IFA, Joe Healy said.