Farmers expect more factory gate protests

Damian McCarney

Beef farmers are bracing themselves for a possible return to the factory gate protests if prices don’t rise in the course of this week.
IFA County Chairman, Jim Spears, confirmed to the Celt this week that farmers were ready to mobilise within hours if the association president deems it necessary to resume their blockade in search of improved beef prices.
There was consensus at a national council meeting in Dublin on Sunday, at which every county was represented, was that the 5c/kg increase in beef prices was insufficient to dissuade the association to call off their threat of further blockades.
“That was only a token,” Mr Spears said of the 5c/kg rise. “We are not going to accept that. There is a price gap of 35c/kg between what we want and what factories are giving. They are going to have to close that gap or we will be protesting again. “The feeling from the meeting was that we will be protesting again unless there are major changes.”
Typically factories set the price for the following week’s beef on Friday, so it is unlikely that the IFA push ahead with a further protest in advance. However, if the factories do not signal their intention to move association president may try to force their hand.
Mr Spears refused to be drawn on when protests will commence if factories don’t respond.
“Whatever hour our president deems fit to call it,” said Mr Spears, “that is the day the protest is going to start. He will call it some evening and we will be at the gates of the factories the next morning.”
He noted that IFA representatives have been shown data highlighting beef price decreases since February, until recent weeks when “they’ve been holding their own”. Holding their own doesn’t appease farmers who are looking at the differences in prices derived from the UK market, which accounts for over 50% of the beef supplied by Irish producers.
“None of that has been passed onto the farmer,” insists Mr Spears.
The Anglo-Celt contacted Meat Industry Ireland (MII) for a response on behalf of the meat factories but they declined to respond comment.

Constructive
Last Thursday the Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney chaired the third meeting of the Beef Roundtable between processors, farm bodies and other stakeholders in the sector, including buyers from Tesco and McDonald’s.
Minister Coveney described the meeting as “very useful and constructive”, noting two outcomes: farm groups and processors agreement to engage in two weeks of intensive discussions on the commercial issues in dispute, under an independent chair, Michael Dowling; and an endorsement from all stakeholders for the establishment of farmer owned producer organisations in the beef sector, to help to rebalance negotiating power.
“It is clear to me that they represent the best opportunity to re-balance the relationship in the supply chain between producers and processors by empowering farmers to organise collectively for the purposes of negotiating on prices with processors,” explained Minister Coveney.

Bargaining power
Mr Spears, agreed that the producer groups would improve beef farmers’ hands, noting the success of such groups have had for sheep farmers. With most beef farmers in Cavan and Monaghan working 100 acre farms or less, it is more difficult to coordinate the establishment of such groups, but Mr Spears believes it would be worthwhile.
“If you had 10 or 20 farmers in a producer group, if each had a few cattle ready you would have a lorry load of cattle to sell at a time and have some bargaining power. There’s no bargaining power with three or four cattle.”