Who had the chair of Bord Bia being embroiled in a controversy over Brazilian beef on their 2026 bingo card? If it had emerged that Larry Murrin had eaten a steak from South America it would have annoyed farmers in the current climate. The revelation that Dawn Farm Foods, the company he is CEO of, is using beef from a Mercosur country, has put him on the barbecue himself.

The fact the information came to light because farmers read the explainer of where fast-food franchise Subway sources its beef adds a note of farce to a very serious situation.

The fact that only 1% of Dawn Farm Foods beef is sourced in South America is not really going to matter in the court of public opinion. The Mercosur trade deal involves 1.25% or so of the EU’s beef market, and has become the dominant issue for farmers across the EU.

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Some are asking if it’s appropriate that the chair of Bord Bia be a meat processor executive. This is not a new issue, Bord Bia’s predecessor, CBF (Córas Beoistoic agus Feola) had a history of a battle for control between farmers and processors.

Ornua has a former dairy processor executive as its chair, but there are significant differences between the two bodies. Firstly, all the dairy processors in Ireland are 100% farmer-owned co-ops. Their boards are overwhelmingly farmers elected by the co-op’s representative structures.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t issues among farmers; we all saw Dairygold embroiled in structural co-op issues all through 2025. However, the level of trust, or distrust, is of a different order to the relationship between cattle farmers and beef processors. We only have to look back to 2019 and the prolonged Beef Plan-led blockades of factories.

Farmers are utterly opposed to imports from South America because of the gap in standards of production, traceability and the associated costs. For processors, ultimately, the bottom line is always the bottom line.

The second reason is the quality assurance schemes. Farmers interact with Bord Bia through these schemes. They are necessary, as a nation that exports the vast majority of its beef, but they are onerous. Farmer buy-in is mainly through the belief that the point of difference created by the schemes helps get the best price possible for Irish beef exports, with the hope being that processors will pass back as much of that better price as possible.

The recent dynamic where cattle are scarce has meant that ‘Mister Want’ has ensured farmers are getting a good price these days, but processors have held the upper hand for most of the last 30 years.

The horsemeat scandal eroded an already fragile trust among farmers in processors. In that context, the revelation that the chair of Bord Bia presides over a company that uses beef from outside the EU is devastating. Where will this go next?

Only time will tell.