Last week Michael Spellman, chair of the ICOS national marts committee, and Ray Doyle, ICOS national marts executive, met the beef chair of the National Farmers ‘Union (NFU) Charles Sercombe in England.

ICOS, the umbrella body for the cooperative movement in Ireland, outlined to the NFU that Ireland’s live cattle exports have decreased by 391,000 head since Ireland joined the EEC in 1973. This figure is based on figures supplied by Bord Bia on live exports in 2015.

The body says that part of the reason for this decline is that UK meat factories have created anti-trade conditions by alleging that UK consumers want a clear indication of where their meat is coming from. At the moment, this is not possible for beef that comes from animals born and reared in one country but slaughtered in another, as country-of-origin labelling rules that came into effect in early 2015 dictate that animals raised in one country and slaughtered in another are labelled as “mixed-origin”.

ICOS says the meat factories “allege that the UK consumer demands to know where the animal was born, reared and slaughtered” but, in reality, the trade restrictions have “more to do with trade control than any legitimate quality or consumer basis”.

Benefits for UK farmers

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal, Ray Doyle said that UK farmers, as well as Irish farmers, would benefit from allowing more Irish live exports into the country. Although the sterling has weakened since the announcement of a referendum date on Brexit, the more usual balance of a strong sterling against a weak euro means that UK farmers would make a better margin if they were allowed to buy Irish stores in the UK.

“With the way the sterling usually is against the euro, the Irish store would be cheaper than the British store so the farmer would make a margin,” Doyle added that, right now, British beef and Irish beef are sold at the same price in British supermarkets, although the Irish meat is cheaper to buy so “someone is making a margin but it’s not the farmer".

Reception from NFU

Doyle added that although the NFU was “hardly jumping for joy at the prospect of thousands of cheaper Irish cattle in their market”, there was a sense that both bodies “need to combine forces to tackle the monopoly on trade restrictions by factories”.

He added that the NFU will be coming over to Ireland in two weeks’ time, so there will be more discussion on the subject then.

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