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New beef producer organisations (POs) will receive up to €3,000 worth of advisory services, Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed has announced.
“Advisers will fall into one of two categories; giving advice on setup of the PO’s statutes, fulfilling Department requirements, etc, or advice on business planning and membership recruitment. Payment for advice in each of these areas will be capped at €1,500,” Minister Creed told the Dáil. He added that his Department would soon put a tender out to recruit approved advisers.
The Government moved €300,000 from the Knowledge Transfer (KT) budget to the proposed support for POs through an amendment to the Rural Development Programme earlier this year.
This would cover 100 POs and is reserved for beef groups. POs “will give negotiating power to smaller enterprises when bringing cattle to slaughter,” the Department wrote in the amendment, echoing a 2014 recommendation from the Beef Forum and the Dowling Report.
European legislation tweaking competition rules to allow POs to negotiate on prices with factories was signed into Irish law last year.
There has been mixed interest so far, including among existing beef producer groups.
“It would probably help us structure ourselves, make it more formal,” said Ivor Deverell of the Irish Hereford Prime group, welcoming the “extra security” attached to the legal recognition of its bonus negotiations with factories.
But representatives for the Irish Aberdeen-Angus Producers’ group and the Longford Beef Producers’ group told the Irish Farmers Journal they had no plans to convert to POs at this stage. “I don’t think it would get us much further,” said Kevin Farrell, coordinator of the Longford group, adding that its 37 members were happy with the existing system whereby they get weekly prices from several processors and sell to the best-paying factory. “This money will go to facilitators, not farmers,” he added.
Beyond startup costs, IFA livestock chair Angus Woods said the Department also needed to provide ongoing support to cover some of the “significant costs of running a PO”.
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