Meat plants may be shut by dispute over charges

THE State's meat processing plants could be forced to close over the next two days if a dispute between processors and renderers over charges is not resolved.

Renderers - who turn bone and offal into meal - stopped collecting from processing plants yesterday in protest at the processors refusal to accept charges which the renderers claim are necessary because they cannot sell their bonemeal products as a result of the BSE crisis.

The stand off comes a week after a temporary £2.5 million Government subsidy scheme for the rendering industry ended. The Department of Agriculture last night reiterated that no further money would be available. "This is now a commercial problem, which has to be solved by a commercial agreement between renderers and beef processors", a spokesman said.

The dispute centres on a demand by the Federation of Irish Renderers (FIR) that meat factories pay them to remove animal carcasses from the plants. The renderers want a system of charges for collection of carcasses, averaging 40p for a sheep, 70p for a pig and £5 for a bovine animal.

"The rendering industry is now facing into a period of substantial losses in processing offal and bone", the federation said. "The meat industry's failure to accept the broad principle of charges leaves the rendering industry with no alternative but to cease collection of offal and bone until the question of charges at meat factories is resolved."

The Irish Meat Processors' Association insists that any discussion of possible charges should take place at plant level, but the FIR does not see this as a sufficiently strong commitment to the principle of charges.

The other processing associations, the Irish Meat Industries' Association (IMIA) and the Irish Association of Pig Processors, are thought to be more amenable to the issue of charges.

The collection of carcasses is crucial to the operation of the meat factories, which are bound by law to get rid of carcasses quickly. Yesterday was a quiet day for the plants, but the real effects of the renderers' ban should be felt from today.

The ICMSA has criticised the renderers' stance, saying that they could not be allowed to paralyse the beef sector for their own "selfish" reasons. The association's deputy president, Mr Pat O'Rourke, warned that it would be unacceptable if more taxpayers' money was spent on the rendering industry to help it deal with the BSE crisis.

"Renderers must realise that they, too, like all sectors involved in the beef industry, must be prepared to suffer a drop in income while the current crisis continues", he said. "Attempting to cripple an already extremely vulnerable industry for short term gains is wholly inappropriate."

The IFA said that it was "disgraceful" that the renderers should cease processing offal only six weeks after receiving £2.5 million in Government aid. It called on the Government to break up the "cosy cartel" in the rendering business and impose "competitive commercial realities".