Policy makers and meat factories “must wake up to the realities” of suckler and beef production costs on Irish farms, the Irish Farmers’ Association’s (IFA’s) national livestock chairperson has said.
Reacting to figures that show that the national herd has decreased by over 550,000 head in the last 20 years, Brendan Golden, the IFA’s national livestock chairperson, called on policy makers and factories to realise the impact that their decisions have on the sector.
“Suckler and beef farmers in Ireland have had their direct production supports eroded in the CAP [Common Agricultural Policy] as EU policy makers chose to outsource food production into regions of lower environmental standards,” he said.
“Food sovereignty and security and their importance to EU citizens have been brought into sharp focus with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, reminding EU policy makers of the core purpose of having a CAP which unfortunately in recent reviews has been transitioned into an environmental payment.
“In doing this, EU policy makers have chosen to outsource food production to areas of lower environmental, animal health, and welfare standards while at the same time pushing EU and Irish farmers into more expensive and exacting farming conditions,” he added.
Golden commented: “We are seeing a growth in beef production in these regions reacting to the increasing world demand for beef while at the same time production within the EU continues to drop as direct supports are removed.
“The foundation if our €2.5 billion beef industry is our suckler cows and this national asset is being allowed decline to a point [that] if not addressed will require a fundamental reshaping of our marketing strategies for Irish beef and the image we portray as a beef producing country,” he added.
“Irish suckler farmers and their production systems have been used by Bord Bia to market Irish beef throughout the world, but the increased value in Irish beef exports is not finding its way back to the income levels on these suckler and beef farms.”
He also raised concerns that the EU-Mercosur Trade Deal will be pushed through, allowing tariff-free access to the EU market for an additional 99,000t of beef from South America.
Golden said this is a “critical point” for the sector in Ireland, and that the deal “highlights the double standards of EU policy makers”.
“On the one hand, Irish farmers are being told we must do more to improve the environment while these very same people are prepared to turn a blind eye to the realities of the environmental destruction in these regions to secure market access for large EU industry, which has a disproportionally negative impact on Ireland,” the IFA livestock chair commented.
He called on Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue to “get off the fence and clearly set out his vision and plans for suckler and beef farmers in Ireland”, and to not allow the EU-Mercosur Trade Deal to be passed.
He also warned that the threat of displacement of Irish beef from the UK market is “very real” as Australia increases its exports to that market.
“This is the type of situation the BAR [Brexit Adjustment Reserve] was put in place for and it must be fully utilised to protect our suckler and beef farmers who have already encountered income losses from the Brexit decision,” Golden said.