The Strait of Hormuz is not the only choke point affecting farmers as they purchase fuel and fertiliser.

There is a similar point operating in the Irish beef processing and rendering industry.

It is hard to grasp the extraordinary arrogance – apart from the lack of ordinary courtesy – that led to the entire industry boycotting the Irish Farmers Journal emergency crisis meeting held last week in Abbeyleix.

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If market circumstances had precipitated the most serious losses in Irish winter finishing that we have ever seen, then people are open to the facts and would be due a rational explanation.

The collapse has been uniquely an Irish phenomenon

But in fact the details put up by the Bord Bia speaker laid out the market realities very clearly.

The collapse has been uniquely an Irish phenomenon. The fact that the president of the IFA also spoke and questioned the capacity of factories through their own feedlots – whether rented or owned – to manipulate market prices tells its own story.

But when this market manipulation is combined with a capacity to restrict throughput at plant level, we have a sector that is crying out for a thorough investigation.

There is more to be considered than simply beef prices.

The overall beef sector this spring has been rocked by the losses incurred by bona fide farmers while the bovine TB programme depends on those finishing cows and cattle bought from reactor herds to be confident that they will be treated fairly, that their finished stock will be paid for at market rates, not at prices manipulated by a short-term capacity to collapse internal Irish prices regardless of British and European market returns.

The extent of the price disparity was fully laid bare at the Abbeyleix meeting.

It is clear that the Minister for Agriculture – probably in conjunction with the food regulator, the IFA and the consumer protection and competition authority – should carry out a detailed inquiry into the operation of the Irish beef processing industry.

It doesn’t take a huge leap to come to the conclusion that if they can discuss joint programmes, they can discuss pricing strategies

Not just the extent of the overall control exercised by the major groups in setting prices and in managing access to necessary rendering facilities but also the criteria for accessing large Enterprise Ireland grants while all the time farmers and government have no visibility on either selling prices or profits.

There is no question but farmers are questioning in a way I had not heard before the make up of the Irish beef processing sector. The fact that the major groups are running joint programmes with each other demonstrates clearly that there is co-operation at some level among them. It doesn’t take a huge leap to come to the conclusion that if they can discuss joint programmes, they can discuss pricing strategies.

These areas are difficult to pin down. So far, the sector has been allowed operate on the basis of trust but ultimately, the Department and Minister for Agriculture have to licence each individual plant.

They should carefully consider if extra conditions should be attached to the granting of these licences.

At least Bord Bia has done some service in having a straightforward comparison of prices paid in other countries. The fact that comparisons can be made over time makes it worthwhile thought it should be extended as far as possible into the prices received for various cuts of meat in different markets.