Simon Coveney confident beef deal can be reached this week

Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney has said he is confident that a solution to the beef crisis can be found by this Wednesday.

Speaking in Brussels this afternoon, Minister Coveney said progress has been made since the meeting between the Irish Farmers Association (IFA) and Department of Agriculture representatives on Friday. The meeting ended without agreement, prompting today's protests.

“I think this is a time now when leaders in farm organisations and leaders in the industry need to keep their heads and work towards a negotiated solution.

“We have a process to get that solution and that will be finishing on Wednesday as part of the Beef Forum. Having spoken to everyone concerned I think that is doable,” Mr Coveney said.

He was speaking as representatives from the Irish Cattle and Sheep organisation are meeting those from Meat Industry Ireland as part of ongoing talks about beef prices.

Meat producers today disputed figures released by the Irish Farmers Association (IFA) as farmers continued to protest outside 14 meat factories.

Among the issues under discussion are concerns about the penalties that apply to animals that are over a certain age or weight, and the information contained in dockets given to farmers by processors outlining how the price is calculated, he said.

“There needs to be more transparency around the pricing of beef in factories and I think we are moving towards that [...]I think that the beef forum on Wednesday can bring the immediate tensions between farmers and factories to a close.”

“This was never going to be easy or straightforward. Everybody knows who understands the beef industry that there has always been a very fractious and difficult relationship between farmers and factory - farmers will always push for a better price and factories will always try to get as much beef as they can as cheaply as they can.”

Mr Coveney said radical changes had been introduced in the way beef processors are regulated, pointing out that it was inevitable that there was going to be big players in the Irish beef processing industry given the industry’s size and focus on exports.

“I can tell you there is no love-loss between some of those players who are competing with each other, “ he said, pointing out that the real problem resided in the relationship between farmer and factory, particularly considering the size and scale of the processors in relation to beef farmers, many of whom have small numbers of cattle.

He said producer organisations, which could represent up to 5,000 farmers, already work well in other European countries, while the beef forums will take place every number of months to ensure that the changes in the industry are monitored, assessed and communicated.

"One thing I can't do as Minister for Agriculture is that I can't set prices. Even after the last beef forum, I got a letter from the Competition Authority making it quite clear to me that the beef forum should not stray into the issue of setting or influencing price, because they market must decide that.

But I can look at structural change within that market to increase and improve the negotiating capacity of farmers which is exactly what we’re doing.”