Welsh farmers plan to blockade trucks of ‘cheap’ Irish beef

Farmers in Wales are planning to disrupt Irish trucks carrying beef from entering Wales via the Port of Holyhead. The blockade is planned for Friday 27 September.

According to North Wales Live, the protest is a result of farmer complaints that “prices are down £150-£200 (€170-€226) on this time last year, blaming the slump on imports” coupled with the uncertainty of Brexit.

Farmers are urged to make a stand against “rock-bottom beef prices and subsidised Irish beef imports”.

A letter was circulated around Anglesey by unknown ringleaders and urged farmers to “get the support of the whole of north Wales. Let the protest be a peaceful one, and to the point.”

Two Welsh farm unions – Farmers Union of Wales (FUW) and NFU Cymru – have not endorsed the blockade. Twenty-three Welsh producers had their names attached to the letter, though many insist that they had no knowledge of this and some have described their misrepresentation as “embarrassing” and “very annoying”.

A spokesperson for the Farmers Union of Wales told the Irish Farmers Journal: "In terms of the protest planned in Holyhead for Friday, while we fully support farmers' rights to protest peacefully and within the law, and share their frustrations, members are angry to learn that a notice of the protest names farmers as supporters or advocates of the action without those farmers having ever been contacted."

An emergency beef summit at the Royal Welsh showground will be held on Wednesday, where meat processors, the farm unions and government bodies will meet to discuss the failing market prices.

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