CONSUMERS CAN expect to pay more for their cuts of meat following substantial increases in the prices farmers are being paid for the limited number of stock being offered for sale.
While poor weather has impacted heavily on the movement of animals to marts and factories, other factors include lack of market-ready stock, increased demand from abroad and higher feed costs.
John Barrett, president of the Associated Craft Butchers of Ireland, said he expected consumer prices to rise for quality Irish product in the near future and the prices were likely to stay high.
“My supplier told me this week I would be paying 5 cent/kg more for my meat this week and it would rise by another 5c/kg next week,” said the Kinsale-based butcher.
“Not only is there a shortage of animals for slaughter just now but the price of grain and the price of fuel are also going up and this will have to impact,” he said.
Mr Barrett, whose organisation represents more than half the country’s independent butchers, said only 300 lambs had been presented for sale at the mart in Fermoy this week at a sale where there should have been twice that number.
“I think the rising prices are very good for the sheep farmers because a lot of them might have quit the business if this latest rise did not happen,” he said.
“As I see it, the retail price of quality meat in butchers shops will go up and it will stay up in the foreseeable future,” he said.
Ireland’s largest retail multiple chain, Tesco, said it “could not possibly discuss anything about future pricing”.
A spokeswoman for the Musgrave group, Ireland’s largest food and grocery distributor, said it believed the higher prices were weather-related and would not be factored into its meat pricing, so prices should remain as they are.
In factories, tight supplies combined with increased demand for beef from abroad saw the price of cattle jump by between €50 and €70 early this week.
Factories increased the prices being paid for lamb to 500c/kg and butchers and wholesalers were paying up to €140 for lambs where they could get them.
There has been increased demand from Britain and France for beef and lamb supplies because of the severity of the weather and lower imports of beef from Latin America has driven up prices.
In addition, grain prices have gone up by €30 per tonne in the past week on international markets and this will lead to higher production costs this winter.