Disrupting normal factory processing activity will not help beef price, Meat Industry Ireland's (MII) Cormac Healy has said.
As members of the Beef Plan Movement protest outside factories around the country, Healy who represents Irish factories said no one denied farmers were under serious pressure. However, he stressed the price paid was reflective of the market.
He said low beef prices were being driven by extreme market conditions, one of which was the uncertainty caused by Brexit.
Healy said factories could only give farmers what the market returned and when the returns were there higher prices would be paid. He said Irish farmers were receiving 102% of the EU average and the UK price was almost on a par which was unprecedented.
Brexit
On Brexit, Healy said it was creating challenging conditions in a number of ways.
Consumer spending was being undermined with sales of beef burgers down by 14% to the beginning of July and customers were unwilling to plan for the autumn with a Brexit date of 31 October.
The €100m beef fund would be a small help for farmers but more would be needed as the Brexit deadline continued to tick against Irish agriculture, Healy said.
On the issue of herd reductions, Healy said reducing beef from Ireland and allowing more beef in from South America to replace it was a “flawed approach”. He highlighted the lack of replacements for the economic activity generated by beef farming in rural areas.
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