Further action sanctioned by IFA over beef prices

The Irish Farmers Association executive council has sanctioned further action against the beef factories as part of its campaign to secure beef price increases from meat processors. It is expected to involve a stepping up of the protests held outside 30 meat plants last week.

The decision was taken at an emergency meeting of IFA's executive council and its livestock committee, in the Irish Farm Centre in Dublin last night. The four-hour meeting was called by IFA president Eddie Downey who said farmers needed an urgent response from the meat factories. He said unless there was " significant movement" on price and market specification issues, farmers would not let another week go by without further action.

Angry

“The clear message from members of the executive council and the livestock committee was that farmers are very angry that the price gap has not been addressed,” he said.

Last week thousands of farmers held a 24-hour protest outside 30 meat plants around the country over cattle prices.

Mr Downey said farmers could not cope with a €350 per head price gap that had opened up between this State and the UK. Meat Industry Ireland, which represents the processors, has disputed the figures used by IFA and said the price comparisons were over-simplistic, inappropriate and wholly misleading.