Despite the Irish Farmers' Association instruction to withdraw blockades at meat plants throughout the Republic, farmers at the four key plants in Cork continued to stage their protest yesterday. The protesters said they would maintain pickets until the meat companies met their demands for a price increase.
If anything, yesterday greater numbers of farmers turned up outside the gates of the Kepak meat plant at Watergrasshill, Co Cork; the Dawn Meats plant at Midleton; the Anglo-Irish Beef Packers plant at Bandon; and the Galtee Meats plant at Charleville.
Protesters, who asked not to be named, said they felt the IFA had let them down by calling off the protest and now felt they were alone.
One spokesman for a group of picketers said: "It looks as if we're in for the long haul, but we're staying here until we get what we want because our cause is a just one. Maybe one or more of us will be sent to jail, but if that happens, the numbers on the streets will be larger than anyone could ever imagine. Anyway we'll face that fence when we come to it."
At the four plants, the farmers said the protest was costing them money because they were not attending properly to their farms. One added: "Of course, it's costing us money, but so are the meat plants, and we'll have no future in this industry unless we get things sorted out. We are determined to continue with our protest, and that's our democratic right."
Mr Tim O'Leary, the former IFA county chairman in Cork, who resigned on Monday, said it was striking that even more farmers had left their fields and farms to show solidarity with their colleagues. The £500,000 fine which the IFA lodged with the High Court yesterday would buy a farm of land, he said, but if in the end justice prevailed, that would be a small price to pay.
"I`m speaking now as an ordinary farmer and not as a member of the IFA. What we're looking for now is transparency from the meat companies and a fair price for our produce.
"If, as they say, they can't afford to meet our demand for 90p a lb for beef, then let them open their books to an independent adjudicator. There's too much distrust at present, and this situation will have to be resolved quickly before things get a lot worse."