Representatives of beef and lamb producers and processors will be invited to submit their views to the Livestock and Meat Commission (LMC) as the organisation seeks to formulate an industry-wide response to the challenges and opportunities posed by Brexit.

During a meeting with MLAs on the Stormont agriculture committee last week, LMC board chair Gerard McGivern and chief executive Ian Stevenson said that their aim was to produce a unified position from the sector.

Within that, there will obviously be some slightly different priorities for farmers and processors. Access to non-UK labour is not an issue on farms, but it is very important to processors, given that up to 70% of operatives in some local factories are foreign workers. Any restriction on access to foreign labour could drive up costs and have a knock-on effect on our ability to trade in new markets, suggested Ian Stevenson.

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He also highlighted the importance of access to markets, and, in particular, the European market. While Britain is undoubtedly the most important outlet for our beef, there is no one customer there that buys the whole animal. “Our industry would like access to as many markets as we can possibly get,” said Stevenson. As well as the EU, new markets in Asia, especially China, remain a priority given that there is a major outlet there for edible offals not readily consumed in the UK.

With up to 50% of NI lambs heading south for slaughter annually, and other cross-border trade in meat products (eg a significant proportion of NI beef slaughtered by Foyle Food Group goes to the Hilton factory in Drogheda for retail packing), the prospect of a hard border and import and export tariffs is of concern to the sector. “Probably the number one priority for industry is tariff-free access to the single market,” said Stevenson.

However, whether continued and new market access will be enough to deliver a sustainable return to farmers without direct subsidies must be debateable. When asked about the continuation of Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) payments, he said: “Anything that would undermine the production of raw material is of great concern to the beef and lamb industry.”