Live exporters in line for Beef Forum invite

LIVE exporters may be invited to the next Beef Forum meeting after it was agreed there would be “merit” in the sector attending, writes Martin Ryan.

ICMSA president Pat McCormack had called it unacceptable that a fundamental sector of the Irish livestock trade remained excluded from the forum.

Fianna Fáil agriculture spokesman Charlie McConalogue TD claimed the beef forum has failed farmers and has become a talking shop with commitments originally made being reneged on.

The ICMSA boss confirmed that his association had requested that the live exporters be invited to participate in the forum and they will continue to vigorously pursue the necessity to have them represented.

“Everyone who has a stake in the beef sector should be represented and it just won’t do that there can be a perception that some people or elements have a louder voice than others”, said Mr McCormack.

Credibility

He said that the credibility of the Beef Forum ultimately rests on delivering on the original commitments, and some are now outstanding for more than two years.

Responding to the criticism, the spokesperson for the Minister said: “Unfortunately there was not space on the agenda at the recent meeting in February but this will be considered again for inclusion on the agenda at the next Roundtable meeting”.

The ICMSA leader said the need for a Beef Forum that really analyses the issues is more vital now than when it was first conceived.

“We believe that in light of the kind of challenges now directly looming up in front of us — Brexit and Mercosur, to name the two most obvious — that we absolutely have to have some forum in which we honestly analyse the problems that we all know are there and then move forward towards improvements,” he said.

“But we have a situation where problems that were identified over two years ago, and on which we received commitments to act, are still ‘on a shelf ’ somewhere,” said Mr McCormack.

Live exports of cattle increased to 188,344/hd in 2017.

This was an increase of 45,000/hd or the equivalent or a 30pc rise.

It had been aided by the reduction of the veterinary inspection fee on live exports of calves less than three months of age from €4.80 to €1.20 per animal.

The ICMSA claim that the forum has been ineffective in dealing with the issues raised since it was set up in 2014.

“A perfect example is the continued inaction on the Beef Grid,” said Mr McCormack.