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The draft proposals, hammered out over 36 hours of negotiations at stakeholder talks, have been rejected by the Beef Plan Movement’s members.
The Beef Plan engaged in a feedback process with its membership base over the weekend and the resounding feedback from farmers was the key issues had not been addressed in a meaningful way.
Speaking on RTE’s Morning Ireland, Beef Plan west region vice-chair David Whelehan said: “We [Beef Plan national council] have taken direction from our membership and they have come back and said no, the deal that is on the table is not good enough.”
Small gains and some concessions
Whelehan said while there had been small gains and some concessions, there had not been enough movement on “price control measures”. The Beef Plan has said the 30-month age limit on steer and heifers, the four-movement rule and the 70 residency requirement are all anti-competitive.
Whelehan called on Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed to address the issues farmers had.
“It’s up to the industry to come forward with meaningful proposals to ensure the primary producers, which provides them with the raw product which makes their businesses sustainable, are returned a fair share of the end retail price.
“We’re not asking for much, we’re just asking for a fair share of the end retail price.”
Protests
The Beef Plan Movement suspended all its official protests before the talks began over two weeks ago. Following the conclusion of the talks and what many farmers view as an unsatisfactory outcome, independent protests have sprung up at some factories.
Whelehan stated that the Beef Plan had stood down from all protests and the new pickets had not been organised by anyone from the group.
He said: “It appears they are farmer individuals that are aggrieved at what they are faced with. They are very concerned about their businesses. There’s nothing we can say for them because we don’t represent the individual farmers that are on the picket line.
“The farmers that are on these picket lines have seen that the talks have not delivered for them. Until such time that the Minister and the industry themselves come up with a workable solution that keeps our farms viable, I can’t see any change to the situation we’re in at the minute.”
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