Factory bosses are railing against moves to reveal how much they are paid for meat by their customers.

Irish factories have said the European Commission’s proposal for EU-wide price reporting by July 2020 would pose a “real danger” to the market.

Meat Industry Ireland (MII) has written to the Commission, raising concerns about the proposal, saying it would “run the risk of undermining overall market returns and give rise to serious unintended consequences”.

Price pressure

MII senior director Cormac Healy told the Commission that forcing factories to report prices “presents a real danger of playing into the hands of our downstream customers leading to negative price pressure”.

“Publication of highly sensitive commercial data will seriously threaten [the] negotiating position in the supply chain and in fact have a potentially negative impact on returns to primary producers,” he wrote.

The Oireachtas agriculture committee this week said that a beef sector regulator should be considered by Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed.

It follows claims from multiple farm organisations to the committee that factories operate a price cartel.

Beef prices have fallen again this week by 5c/kg to €3.75/kg for steers and €3.85/kg for heifers.