The Department of Agriculture will shortly invite tenders for the next contract to supply cattle tags. Tenders will have to be submitted by the end of May, with the result announced in September. Up to half a dozen companies could submit tenders.

Answering a question submitted by Fianna Fáil deputy Éamon Ó Cuív on the tendering process, Minister Simon Coveney said that his Department had again made a policy decision to seek a single supplier for provision of the service.

“A single supplier is deemed to be the optimum approach to meeting the identification requirements of the bovine sector in Ireland for superior quality bovine tags that meet the high standards needed to support a secure bovine identification and traceability system. This approach also ensures that tags are made available to herdkeepers at a competitive price with a single supplier benefitting from economies of scale,” he said.

New contract

The new contract will operate from 1 November 2016 and – if it runs along previous lines – will be for two years with the Department then having an option to extend it by up to two more years. The two-year contract is worth €13m to the winner.

Since the tendering process was introduced, the Department has appointed a single supplier under each contract, and Mullinahone Co-op, supplier of Allflex tags, has been the winner on each occasion to date.

Up to now, rival companies have been lobbying the Department to divide the contract between several suppliers. That is the norm in most other EU member states.

Department to open tender for cattle tags

Coveney confirms single supplier once again for cattle tags

Despite pressure to appoint more than one supplier under the new contract, as is done elsewhere, the Department confirmed that the tendering process for cattle tags will be open to one supplier only.