An IBLA spokesperson asks if Irish farmers will have to “take to the roads again” in light of the recent beef price pull.
Since its first sitting, the Irish Beef & Lamb Association (IBLA) representatives have sat at the Beef Market Taskforce.
The Beef Taskforce is the only forum where the beef industry can sit and discuss its problems and aspirations and form a basis for a collaborative approach.
Most farmers agree its work has not been completed, with incomplete reports and hard questions on positions remaining unanswered.
IBLA has looked for and stated openly that the Taskforce must remain in place to hold everybody to account.
The sound bites from other farm organisations on the price pull by the meat industry are nothing more than spin.
Beef price pull
Not one of the farm organisations, other than IBLA, has called for the taskforce to reconvene.
Farmers on the ground, who have seen their cattle devalued again by 20c/kg, are not being represented.
IBLA wonders how any farm organisation truly fighting for its members would not want the meat industry brought in and held to account.
The frustrations and lack of representation led farmers to the protest of 2019 and the formation subsequently of IBLA.
IBLA has seen no change in approach by those who claim to represent the largest number of beef farmers.
IBLA wants beef farmers across the country to hold all farm organisations and the meat industry to account for the unilateral decisions taken to devalue beef at a time of rising prices for beef in our largest markets. Do farmers have to take to the roads again?
Further reading
Last week, the group called on the Minister for Agriculture to reconvene the Beef Market Taskforce next month.
The group said the taskforce is “the only forum available to farmers to have their grievances aired concerning tactics in the meat industry”.
“No sooner was it said in July that it may be the last taskforce meeting when it was mooted that there was a unilateral withdrawal of feedlot buyers from marts.”
“This, in turn, has filtered through to an unjustified price pull by meat factories. IBLA sees this as opportunistic and a strategic attempt to further reduce cattle prices going into the weeks and months ahead.”
“From IBLA observations, we can see that consistent price increases for beef in the UK, a smaller pool of cattle being currently available, and an increased demand for and consumption of Irish beef, the reduction of ten cents by factories is unjustifiable.”
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