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Escalating hostilities between the IFA and Larry Goodman’s ABP have seen the farm organisation withdraw authority for the beef processor to collect farmer levies on its behalf.
At lunchtime on Wednesday, the Irish Farmers Journal revealed that ABP was changing the levy system from one where consent was presumed to one where farmers must now request that the levy is collected. “We will make an EIF deduction from our farmer suppliers if requested to do so by those farmer suppliers,” an ABP spokesman said.
Listen to Irish Farmers Journal editor Justin McCarthy discuss Wednesday's developments in our podcast below:
The IFA responded, blaming the act on its opposition to the ABP purchase of 50% of Slaney/ICM. Following a January protest, a report by a leading competition economist, commissioned by the IFA, was sent to the EU’s competitions commissioner. “ABP will not dictate how the IFA represents farmers or how farmers decide to support their association,” IFA president Joe Healy now says.
Healy has written to Goodman, instructing him to suspend the collection of the levy, with immediate effect.
IFA and ABP levy row escalates fast
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