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MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE Michael Creed will today convene talks with farmers and meat processors as efforts step up in a bid to end the ongoing beef prices dispute, saying “now is the time to take a step back from entrenched positions”.
The row centres around the prices farmer are getting for cattle which are down considerably on last year. The dispute has seen unofficial pickets by farmers at processing facilities around the country.
Meat processors have taken injunctions against protesters to try to clear the way for their trucks to move in and out of facilities, with the most recent injunction ruling yesterday permanently preventing protesters from blockading a premises in the midlands.
Meat Industry Ireland (MII) has claimed that 3,000 employees at meat processing plants around the country have been “temporarily laid off” as a result of the dispute.
The chairman of the Beef Plan Movement – an association of farmers campaigning for higher prices for their produce - Eamon Corley told TheJournal.ie last week that “factories are going to have to realise that a sustainable price for farmers is going to have to be secured”.
He added that in any talks “there has to be an avenue for price to be discussed”.
In confirming the talks today, Minister Creed said it was important both sides today take a “positive approach towards resolving their differences”.
“I expect all sides to recognise the urgency of the current situation, and to enter talks in good faith and with a firm intention to reach agreement,” he said.
The Irish Farming Association has welcomed the talks taking place today.
“Meat Industry Ireland and the minister must come forward with concrete and substantive proposals to resolve the issues and improve the position of farmers,” he said.
We can’t afford to spend any time on posturing and game playing. We need to get this solved this weekend.
Sinn Féin MEP Matt Carthy also put the pressure on Minister Creed to bring forward “real and meaningful proposals” today.
“The key to the resolution of this dispute is to ensure the sustainability of livelihoods for Irish beef farmers and that means tackling and resolving the issue of the price they receive for their produce and the dominant position of the factories and retailers in the market chain,” he said.
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Not asking for a lot! Just a fair price!
@Bull McCabe: em a fair price boarding on price fixing and cartel forming. Peaceful protests are fine but blockading business is not ok. Also their completely against free trade while at the same time happy to export wherever they can. They don’t need to sell to the meat processors , they can take control and create their own chain and hopefully not sell it this time.
@Shawn O’Ceallaghan: do you see farmers protesting at the ports where imported produce comes in? No!
Farmers are not against imports or free trade!
We are simply standing up together to get a fair price for what we produce.
@Shawn O’Ceallaghan: the cartel and price fixing isn’t done by the farmers that between factories and retailers. Farmers have no problems with free trade but it must be on an even playing field. If cattle can be reared in other places and given growth hormones and fed with gm products then they can be ready for slaughter in 12 months Irish farmers don’t have that option nor do European farmers as they cannot use such products also there is a huge traceability issue with other beef where at Irish and European we’ve can be traced from farmer to distributor in this incurs loads of extra costs does driving up the cost of the beef production for farmers
Wait for it, no police for the streets, yet 100s will be deployed to stop the protests…. Protect big business at all cost…
@Dave Walsh: Larry Goodman’s niece is married to Simon coveneys brother. Do you see the picture now?
@Bull McCabe: are you serious?
@Oliverpool: very serious
@Dave Walsh: there was no Garda presence in Dawn Meats or ABP In Rathkeale the last few days, just protesters sitting on couches and playing hurling
@Patrick O Connell: Dawn Meats Charleville
Hon the farmers, stick it to the cuxxs
The real criminals should be called to the meeting – the retailers. They need to give a little of their share too.
We have not got the full picture.What are the retailersgetting and what discounts do they demand from rhe processors.
The wall criminals should be called to the meeting – the retailers. They need to give a little of their share too.
We have not got the full picture.What are the retailers getting and what deals do they demand of the processors.
Can’t wait for the annual fodder crisis !!!!
Ye cry wolf too often just import the beef like the sugar
I thought the farmers wrangled € 100 m euro from the government and the eu in May. And now they are whining again
Can somebody tell them to re train like everyone else when your market disappears
It’s time for them to stop terrorizing others with an industry of lobbyists organizing and manipulating to keep a dead business alive
Move on lads the show is over
Maybe the meat industry can get Michael O’Leary to explain this to the poor farmers
The farmers have a case – they just want a fairer share of the profit for the animals they rear. It was explained to me this way: for every €20 a consumer spends on beef, the retailer gets €9, the meat processing factory gets €9 and the farmer gets €2 when he’s spent 2.5 years rearing the animal. The farmers don’t want the price to go up for the consumer, they just want the meat factories and the retailers to pass on a better share of their profit margin to the producer.
So, that seems reasonable. However, the protests are becoming ugly and prolonged and if things don’t get sorted quickly, there’s a danger that the supermarkets here and in the UK will just go elsewhere for their beef and so there’s a risk that there will be no market to come back to if/when it gets resolved. The supermarkets need to be more involved here too and the Minister for Agriculture needs to bang some heads together to come up with a resolution.
Rumours abound The meat industry are planning to announce 2000 permanent job loss s next week
Keep rattling lads ye are just shooting yourselves in the foot
have your say