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The cost price squeeze between falling prices and rising inputs is causing real pressure on the suckler sector, UDC professor of agriculture and food economics Michael Wallace has told 1,300 farmers at the Irish Farmers Journal Beef Summit.
“Prices are trending downwards or static, while input costs are trending upwards,” he told farmers in Ballinasloe, Co Galway.
“It is causing real pressure on farm incomes and real disillusionment in the sector,” Prof Wallace said.
Suckler beef contributes €700m and 12,000 jobs to the west's economy alone, says UCD economist Michael Wallace. #beefsummit pic.twitter.com/pfaQRbUmDf
— Farmers Journal (@farmersjournal) May 9, 2019
The UCD academic highlighted the huge dependence of rural Ireland on the suckler herd, saying that farmers are highly embedded in rural economics, spending in rural areas, generating income for businesses and people in their localities.
He quoted the example of indirect and overhead expenditure in Co Galway, which amounts to €130m per annum.
Prof Wallace has calculated that the suckler industry is worth €2.9bn to the Irish economy and generates the equivalent of 52,000 full-time jobs.
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