Carnew mart manager David Quinn says that while collecting levies in marts may work as an IFA funding stream, there is a slight conflict of interest where it comes to factories.
"The marts are a bit different, but when they're expecting the factories to collect levies for them and then they're going in the other door and arguing with them on price, it's hard to see how this is the right system anyway," Quinn said.
He added that the association "needs to look at other ways" to raise money. "Going back to last November or December when the trouble came, I felt that perhaps the IFA would have to take a look at the whole system and I suppose that this is probably going to concentrate the minds again now," he said.
Quinn estimates that the drop-off in levies could be up to 50% at Carnew mart.
"All through 2015 up until the crisis came there was a fair degree of people dropping their IFA levy. When the crisis came in November that was exasperated and multiplied by large fold.
A strong farm organisation is critical for the country
"I would say 25% to 30% have dropped off since November and I would say that there probably would have been 10% to 15% had dropped off before that. I think you could be looking at 30% to 40%, maybe even up to 50%."
However he was adamant that there is a need for a strong IFA, especially given the current agricultural market situation.
"A strong farm organisation is critical for the country, for farmers and for everyone really in the agri-business," he said.
Listen to the full interview with David Quinn in our podcast below:
Tuam mart manager Marian Devane, too, said that she had seen a decrease in levies being collected. Yet she added that "farmers need somebody to fight in their corner. Farmers need the IFA so they will have to find it some other way, like increasing the yearly fee".
She said that levies had not been a topic of discussion with farmers in recent times. The same can be said of Ballina mart, according to manager Billy Loftus, who does not have plans to change the levy collection system either.
"There was a bit of a decrease in the month after the pay scandal but that has eased off at this stage. It might come up at a committee meeting but it hasn't been discussed so far," he said.
It should be noted that a minority of marts have a long-standing policy of not collecting any levies.
Opt-in at Drummonds
In a statement to the Irish Farmers Journal, Dawn Meats said it "has no plans to change existing levy collection arrangements unless asked to do so by farmers or the farm organisations.”
Other large processors including dairy co-ops and grain merchants declined to comment on ABP's decision. However, a representative for Dawn Meats said the processor has "no plans to change existing levy collection arrangements unless asked to do so by farmers or the farm organisations.”
It has emerged, however, that Larry Goodman's beef processing company was not the first levy collector to introduce an opt-in system for levies: the Irish Farmers Journal understands that Co Louth grain merchants Drummonds already operate in the same way.
Amy McShane contributed reporting for this story.
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SHARING OPTIONS