Each lamb can cost consumer £20 more than price paid to farmers

Farmers are generally paid a base price of 86p a lb for this year's spring lambs, although good-quality animals and membership of a producer group allied to a particular factory can increase the price by a few pence.

Comparing this information to what the consumer pays for meat, however, is difficult as each beast contains some 12 different cuts which can be used to cross-subsidise each other, and each of which can vary widely in price from week-to-week.

Yesterday, Tesco Ireland was quoting lamb chops at £3.59 a lb and a leg of lamb at £2.19 a lb. Roughly calculated, these prices mean that if a farmer is paid £37 for a lamb, the additional costs before the consumer buys it amount to £20.

At the marts, good grade heifers are being quoted at between 75p and 78p a lb respectively.

Tesco was also yesterday selling fillet steak at £6.99 a lb (reducing to £5.99 a lb at the weekend) and minced beef at £1.45 a lb. Dunnes Stores was selling fillet steak at £4.99 a lb and premium mince at £1.89 a lb.

According to Mr Peter Dargan, chairman of the Consumers Association of Ireland, the farmers' difficulty is that some 80 per cent of Irish meat is exported, most to non-traditional markets such as Russia and intervention.

"Who ever heard of a market in Russia until a few years ago? We used also to control our processors, but that has changed too," Mr Dorgan said.

"There are now so many high-wage stages between the farmer and the consumer, from processors to packaging to the supermarkets, whose portion of the price remains constant, that when the price falls because the Russians don't want our beef, only the farmers' portion is reduced. That is what this dispute is about."