MEAT retailers have denied they are failing to pass on cattle price cuts to consumers.
Many retailers said price reductions, coupled with quality assurance schemes introduced since the BSE scare, had boosted sales above levels achieved before the scare in March.
The Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mr Yates, said on Monday he had asked the Director of Consumer Affairs, Mr William Fagan, to see what action was necessary to ensure the competitive position of beef was reflected in shops.
He quoted a survey by the Central Statistics Office which revealed a 4 per cent fall in prices since March but said this had to be viewed against the background of a 20 per cent fall in cattle prices.
Retailers said yesterday the fall in cattle prices applied to old as well as young cattle. Old cattle prices had fallen dramatically but their carcasses were sold into intervention or exported. There was no market for them in the shops, where consumers were only prepared to buy young beef.
Mr Tommy Buckley, of F.X., Buckley, one of Dublin's largest, meat retailers with four shops 0[ the city and suburbs, said its sales were up 15 per cent on a year ago, largely because of price reductions. With the BSE scare, consumers initially recoiled from beef, but they were now buying again when they were confident about the quality of meat.
Mr Feargal Quinn of Superquinn said it also experienced a sales increase in recent months as the company reduced prices and introduced its traceability guarantee scheme for all beef products. It had been visited by the Minister last week to compliment it on achieving a sales increase. He believed it was a mistake to concentrate entirely on price. Consumers would only be reassured if they were satisfied about the origin of meat products.
Quinnsworth also reduced prices by an average of 11 per cent for meat products and sales were now running above the levels achieved before the BSE scare, a spokesman said.
Super Valu said it reduced prices and introduced a treaceability quality scheme. Sales volumes were steady and six times since March, when special promotions were introduced, they had zoomed, a spokesman said.
On Monday, Mr Yates launched a £500,000 beef promotion campaign by the Irish Food Board to counter the effects of the BSE scare using media advertising and leaflets.
The chief executive of the Consumers' Association of Ireland, Ms Caroline Gill, said tastes were changing and many people were giving up meat. Prices should fall to reflect the change.
The chairman of the livestock committee of the Irish Farmers' Association, Mr Raymond O'Malley, said retailers had taken advantage of the crisis in the beef sector at the expense of consumers and producers and that must change.