The CEO of the Agri-Food Regulator Niamh Lenehan has been asked to bring transparency to the sheep processing sector by regularly publishing price, weight and carcase specification data.

The request came from the IFA’s sheep chair Adrian Gallagher, who stated that sheep farmers are currently operating without any real-time, standardised information on factory sheepmeat prices.

Figures quoted by processors are often “not comparable to actual prices paid” and transparency issues are compounded by some factories regularly choosing not to release quotes, Gallagher said while speaking at an IFA event on Thursday.

“I think it is very important to acknowledge people coming forward in terms of putting flesh on the bone on what does transparency mean for them, and what can actually be of assistance on the ground and we can move that forward appropriately,” Lenehan said.

The regulator has already drawn up a voluntary “co-operation framework” as to how it could collect information from retailers and processors not publicly available, and which may be commercially sensitive.

While the body only has powers to seek information from these players in the market, it has sought updates to legislation which would increase its powers to prevent requests for information going ignored.