The Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) continued its protest campaign against retailers in a fifth location on Wednesday 11 December. Members of the IFA gathered outside the "goods in" depot at Dunnes Stores in Cornelscourt in south Dublin from 12pm to protest against low prices for beef farmers.

The beef markets in the UK and across Europe have seen a price rise in recent weeks, however, Irish farmers have not seen a rise in profits to match. Prices are also behind the Bord Bia export benchmark price.

Negative impact

IFA president Joe Healy has accused Dunnes Stores of being part of a race to the bottom with their discounting policy which has a direct and negative impact on the prices farmers get for their produce.

“Dunnes Stores has no problem in discounting their beef by 40%. Worse, Dunnes thinks it’s not a problem for farmers. If anybody believes the retailer takes the full hit in these discounting campaigns, they are living in cloud cuckoo land.

“This week, IFA made a submission for stronger retail legislation, including the establishment of an independent regulator who will take on the retail bosses. It cannot happen soon enough, assuming the Government is prepared to stand up and take on the powerful interests which dominate the food chain,” he said.

Price gap

“The facts are the factories have pocketed these market improvements over the last five to six weeks and the Bord Bia price index proves this,” Healy added.

The latest Bord Bia Beef price index shows that the gap between Irish prices and our main export markets has widened again.

It now stands at 21c/kg, up from 20c/kg the previous week. This gap has increased from 5c/kg in mid-October to 21c/kg last week, highlighting the improvement in beef market prices to the factories.

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