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A placard at a protest in Clonee earlier this month. TheJournal.ie

More pickets at beef plants as talks labelled 'a waste of time' unless prices are on the table

The unofficial protests are ongoing amid unrest among farmers.

PROTESTS ARE ONGOING at some meat processing facilities as the IFA has said that more talks are “a waste of time” unless price is being discussed.

The unofficial protests are not being organised by any specific group with those on the picket saying they have taken the action themselves.

Yesterday, the Beef Plan Movement confirmed that it has rejected the draft deal reached between farmers, the meat industry and the Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed.

Beef Plan Movement protests were suspended on 9 August after 12 days of pickets around the country but some farmers are still protesting over beef prices.

Speaking on the RTÉ’s News at One this afternoon, IFA President Joe Healy said the reason farmers were not happy with the previous talks is that the central issue of beef prices wasn’t addressed.

“We talk about going back into talks but it’s a waste of time going back in if we can’t talk about price. We mentioned price every time we were in there but unfortunately it couldn’t be talked about, or so we were told,” Healy says.

Okay price mightn’t be agreed in there, and competition law states that, but price can still be talked about in there because it’s very clear no matter what farmer you talk to it’s all about price.

Tweet by @AgriLand AgriLand / Twitter AgriLand / Twitter / Twitter

Beef prices are down considerably from this time last year with Healy saying farmers are being forced to sell at below the average cost of production, as estimated by Teagasc.

Healy says that part of the problem is an oversupply in the market that is being made worse by the importation of beef from South America. The IFA has called for an immediate ban “on all sub-standard South American beef”.

“It’s a price increase that farmers want. We need the EU market to be rebalanced, it’s oversupplied at the moment but a lot of that oversupply is as a result of beef that’s coming in from South America.

We had 140,000 tonnes of beef coming in from Brazil last year and people confuse it with the Mercosur deal and that hasn’t even hit yet.

Beef prices are set through supply and demand. The Department of Agriculture cannot directly intervene to set prices but there have been calls for greater transparency around pricing.

PastedImage-62997 Sinn Féin TD Brian Stanley TheJournal.ie TheJournal.ie

Sinn Féin today published a bill that seeks to have meat processors publish cattle prices that would be available to the public each day.

The Mandatory Beef Price Transparency would require beef processors to provide details around the price paid for cattle per kilogram as well as details of the cut and grade of beef for boxed beef.

Brian Stanley TD said the party was not seeking to set a specific price that beef farmers should receive but added that intervention was needed.

There’s huge, huge discrepancies in the information coming in as to what various factories and processors are paying. There’s huge discrepancy as regarding what share farmers get, but what we do know is that the farmers are running at loss, I’ve seen some of their balance sheets. What we do know is that some of major beef processors are making massive profits.

Stanley added the couldn’t say price-fixing was happening but that farmers feel they are not being dealt with honestly. 

“We have reports from around the country of farmers who believe that cattle is being graded wrongly, that they’re being disadvantaged. They believe that there’s discrepancies in the information coming through. So the only way the only way of flushing all of this out and getting knowledge out in the open is having that observatory there to ensure that there is up to date daily information there.”

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    Mute Peter Cavey
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    Apr 27th 2021, 11:12 AM

    It’s my fault folks. I took my BBQ out of storage and cleaned it yesterday. I’m cursed. Last summer I bought a brand new garden furniture set. Then, 3 days later it rained for 2 months.

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    Mute Football in the Groin
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    Apr 27th 2021, 11:18 AM

    @Peter Cavey: We’ll remember this…

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    Mute Jules
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    Apr 27th 2021, 11:19 AM

    @Peter Cavey: Yep, it’s all your fault.

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    Mute Joseph Crossan
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    Apr 27th 2021, 11:47 AM

    @Peter Cavey: thank you for the laughs. Needed that today!

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    Mute Margaret O Neill
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    Apr 27th 2021, 12:02 PM

    @Peter Cavey: oh

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    Mute Bernadette Connaughton
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    Apr 27th 2021, 12:05 PM

    @Peter Cavey: Typical Peter isn’t it!!

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    Mute Elaine Gardner
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    Apr 27th 2021, 12:41 PM

    @Peter Cavey: In order to give us a fighting chance of decent weather, I trust the BBQ is back in storage and will remain there for the duration of the summer

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    Mute Ann Basquille Smith
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    Apr 27th 2021, 4:25 PM

    @Peter Cavey: So funny. I know how you feel. We made a big investment in our garden in 2007 and it rained for five years.

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    Mute Sue Kelly
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    Apr 27th 2021, 6:21 PM

    @Peter Cavey: not the only one. Got new outdoor furniture yesterday too

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    Mute Brian Kelly
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    Apr 27th 2021, 11:53 AM

    That’s it! Summer is over for another year. When you think of it, it’s been like this the last number of years. We get a great week or so (7-8) days of sunny weather then it rains until September. Maybe after all Nostradamus was correct in his prediction, that the time will come when man can’t tell the difference between the seasons anymore. Certainly feels like it anyway today :-D

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    Mute Eoin Hennigan
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    Apr 27th 2021, 11:55 AM

    @Brian Kelly: short memory, we had a glorious Summer last year throughout lockdown and afterwards.

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    Mute Paul Cunningham
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    Apr 27th 2021, 12:00 PM

    @Eoin Hennigan: I just remember Irish Water ruining it for everyone, the day they announced a hosepipe ban it rained for weeks in July

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    Mute Pat Breen
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    Apr 27th 2021, 12:33 PM

    @Eoin Hennigan: rained June July and August

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    Mute Brian Kelly
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    Apr 27th 2021, 12:58 PM

    @Eoin Hennigan: no!…. we had a great week in the very first lockdown then it went downhill. It was just back to normal Irish weather. Rain and showers. I’m a weather fanatic lol.

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    Mute NotMyIreland
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    Apr 27th 2021, 1:52 PM

    @Eoin Hennigan: we got all our sun in the first couple of weeks of lockdown when it was to early to have proper warmth. June had 28%, July 33% and August 24% more rain than the average year. So all in all summer last year could be considered a wash out.

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    Mute The Firestarter
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    Apr 27th 2021, 3:31 PM

    @Eoin Hennigan: No we didn’t, late April & May were stunning, so much so that Irish Water were threatening water shortages. However after the June Bank Holiday it was the usual Irish Summer of a few good days here and there, so it most certainly was not a glorious Summer.

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    Mute Pauline Gallagher
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    Apr 27th 2021, 4:45 PM

    @Brian Kelly: last year, it was above average temperatures and dry and sunny all through second half of March, all of April, May and the first two weeks of June. We were told not to water the flowers because of drought conditions. Summer 2018 was lovely as well.

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    Mute The Firestarter
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    Apr 27th 2021, 6:14 PM

    @Pauline Gallagher: You must be one of these Irish People who thinks it’s a lovely day if it’s not raining.

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    Mute Sue Kelly
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    Apr 27th 2021, 6:22 PM

    @Eoin Hennigan: 100%

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    Mute Petulant mcbarity
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    Apr 27th 2021, 7:14 PM

    @Brian Kelly: it was nearly two months of good weather last spring.

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    Mute Ed
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    Apr 27th 2021, 11:19 AM

    Few showers, be grand.

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    Mute Sommer Church
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    Apr 27th 2021, 11:01 AM

    Damn it, was really enjoying the lovely weather!

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    Mute ed w
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    Apr 27th 2021, 1:35 PM

    “met eireann forecasts rain for most of the week ” says the journal headline. reads on tommorrow will be cool and dry ?

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    Mute Ann Basquille Smith
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    Apr 27th 2021, 4:28 PM

    @ed w: most of the week not all of the week.

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    Mute BoJackHorseman
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    Apr 27th 2021, 11:51 AM

    Great news :)

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    Mute Maximilian Cope
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    Apr 27th 2021, 11:48 AM

    But… Where is the news? Actually this is a fact.

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    Mute Aaron92utd
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    Apr 27th 2021, 11:59 AM

    @Maximilian Cope: you implying normally news had no facts? Or is generally devoid of them?

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    Mute Paul Cunningham
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    Apr 27th 2021, 12:01 PM
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