Farmers can no longer be sold down the swanny on beef price - Gorman

Irish farmers can no longer be sold down the swanny when it comes to beef price, Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) president Francie Gorman has said.

“Do we need some level of fixed price contracts for farmers in the back end of the year?" he asked at the Irish Farmers Journal’s beef markets information meeting on Monday night.

“We’ve seen that the markets across the UK and Europe are way ahead of ours, there’s no excuse for the prices we’ve taken for our beef,” he said.

He said the cost of doing business is massive for farmers.

“Since the Iran war came, the price of diesel is up 50c/l and fertiliser has gone up €200/t. We’re told at farm level there’s little that can be done. That’s not good enough,” he told farmers at the meeting, which took place in Abbeyleix.

Gorman said that the primary producer can no longer be the foundation on which everybody passes on their costs.

Standards

He said that farmers are being continually told by Bord Bia, industry and retailers that farmers have “got to reach higher and higher standards”.

“They cannot be reached unless we’re rewarded in the price we get for. Farmers can no longer be sold down the swanny,” he said.

The IFA president said that we are in an era of declining beef production.

“Why can we not get a price for our product?” he said, advising farmers to sell tough. “Don’t give them all the cattle you have,” he said.

At current prices, you’re not going to have a winter finishing sector

Farmers cannot be expected to carry the cost of trade deals or the cost of trade deals that the UK may do around the world, he added.

On Mercosur, he said that it is the IFA’s belief that if Brazilian beef comes in at the cost base they can produce it for in South America, then Irish farmers cannot compete with that.

“At current prices, you’re not going to have a winter finishing sector. We have got to see a lift in prices. There’s no doubt that the concerns people have has been reflected in prices.

“If the factories don’t take note, they’re not going to have their all-year-round supply.

“Support the people in this room or you’re not going to have that sector there in future,” he said.

CAP

Gorman said that the impact of the changing CAP over the last two decades has had an impact on finishers.

“If you go back over 20 years and look at the impact on CAP, particularly on people in this room that finished cattle, it started with decoupling and it’s ongoing since. The last [CAP] was particularly penal,” he said, adding that the next CAP is already starting with a 20% reduction in the budget.

“How can you deliver higher ambition if you’re not prepared to support it? It needs to be nearer to €500bn…that’s required and needed,” he said.