Beef industry may look for Gov supports if blockades continue
Meat industry representatives say that they may look for Government support if blockades continue to stall beef production at factories across the country.
Meat Industry Ireland, representing producers, has warned that the decline in beef productions is causing “irreparable damage” to Ireland’s export markets, and that State intervention may be sought to make up the shortfall.
The warning follows confusion in the aftermath of talks aimed at resolving the row between farmers and producers over the price of cattle and other criteria.
MII has said that despite its understanding that pickets would be stood down after a deal was struck on Sunday, protests continue outside its members’ factories.
However a spokesperson for the Beef Plan Movement - one of the farmers’ bodies represented at the talks - said the fractured nature of the protests makes it more difficult to bring the demonstrations to an end.
“Unfortunately it’s not as simple as walking up to a picket line and expecting all farmers to desist protesting,” the spokesperson said.
He said that while the Beef Plan Movement had no problem in telling its members to stand down from the picket lines, the various memberships of those involved in the protests required all farmers’ groups to make similar efforts.
Even then, the spokesperson warned, there were protestors not affiliated with any groups - and some may not even be farmers.
“We believe that not all on the pickets may be from the farming community,” the spokesperson said.
The Beef Plan Movement said both the deal struck at the weekend and the legal recognition afforded to its Producer Organisation were positives that would mean farmers are better off now than they were six months ago.
Meat Industry Ireland’s Cormac Healy said processors were being ‘blackmailed’ by protestors.
“This is a blackmailing situation where protesters are illegally blocking the gates and suggesting that they discuss with management when they can reopen,” he told RTÉ’s News at One.
“We are at a juncture where irreparable damage is being done to the customer base for Irish beef, and whenever we do get back processing normal processing activity, there's a big question mark over how many customers will still be there.
“They are moving to, and have moved to, get supply from other markets. When we get back open, if many of these customers are gone, we'll be looking to government to look at market support measures rather than trying to supply those good premium customers that we had.
“Many of those protesting on gates are not actually suppliers of the plants and the individual processing plants have a relationship with their farmer suppliers that are by and large, regular suppliers. There is no question that there's real issues in the sector at the moment driven by a depressed market situation and putting serious pressure on farmers that are producing. That is recognised, but it is driven by the market. Efforts have been made over the weekend by the industry fully engaged in these talks to address some of these issues that have been ongoing and they have been addressed,” he said.
“Farmers should be allowed to be able to process their cattle now and they're being held up by a small few,” Mr Healy said.
