BUTCHERS and supermarkets are "ripping off" consumers by not passing on the large reduction in beef prices since the British BSE controversy, according to the Irish Farmers' Association.
Cattle prices had fallen by 15p per lb, or 17 per cent, since last autumn. However, there had been no real across the board reduction in retail prices to consumers.
Mr Raymond O'Malley, chairman of the IFA national livestock committee, said "margin grabbing" at retail level was having a very damaging impact on beef consumption. "It is totally unjustified and nothing short of a rip off on consumers that supermarkets would charge over £9 per lb for fillet steak and over £6 per lb for strip loin."
He said middlemen, including factory slaughterers, wholesalers and retailers, were taking advantage of the crisis in the beef sector "to line their own pockets".
Despite "huge reductions in farmer prices, the price of beef dishes in both restaurants and hotels had not reduced since earlier this year, he added.
The IFA believes beef consumption could be significantly increased if the lower prices cattle producers were forced to take at farm level were passed on to the consumers at retail level.
The IFA intends to pursue the issue with supermarkets and butchers. It is convinced that if the lower prices at farm level were passed on to the consumer there would be a "dramatic increase" in beef consumption.