FARMING organisations are bitterly disappointed with the tender from Irish meat factories to place 8,222 tonnes of beef in EU intervention. This should take 25,000 cattle off the market over the next fortnight.
The tender, which has yet to be sanctioned by the EU's Beef Management Committee on Tuesday, has been put in at an average price of 94p per pound. It was welcomed by the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Yates, in Italy last night.
However, the Irish Farmers Association expressed "grave disappointment" at the tender. Its president, Mr John Donnelly, said the intervention tender of 8,200 tonnes fell short of the 15,000 tonnes necessary to remove the backlog. He said window dressing" by Mr Yates would not hide his failure to achieve the 97p per lb promised last week.
The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association said the beef intervention price would "break cattle producers" who were being let down by the Minister.
The Irish Cattle Traders' and Stockowners' Association said the low volume of beef tendered was inadequate to clear the cattle now in beef producer sheds. Many farmers now facing bankruptcy would have to permanently withdraw from the beef finishing business.
However, the news was welcomed in Italy yesterday by Yates, who said it had the potential to take heavy cattle off market in the next fortnight, was not disappointed at the level of demand for the intervention the price. "There is now an for the heavier cattle which are sheds all over the country."
He said farm organisations were over estimating the number of cattle due to be slaughtered and this tender would make big inroads into the numbers available. The factories tendered at the highest allowable price which is available. The factories tendered at the highest allowable price which is based on the average EU priced being paid for cattle last week plus 10 ecus. "It will do much to ease the pressure on beef farmers," he said.
When it was pointed out that he had expressed the hope that the factories would apply for 15,000 tonnes, Mr Yates said he had hoped for that but he was not disappointed at the outcome.
Intervention was reintroduced after three years to cope with the glut of unsold beef following the BSE crisis. The first, nearly three weeks ago, was unsuccessful because of restrictions placed on intervention in the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy.
Irish factories sought less than 1,000 tonnes of beef at a price of 92p per lb and farm organisations were highly critical of it.
A week ago the beef management committee amended the rules of intervention to allow all weights of animals to qualify and increased the processing allowance given to factories.
