‘It’s time to address beef issue’
A SPOKESPERSON involved with the Beef Plan 2018-2025 movement in Kerry has warned that beef farmers in the county are facing into a precarious future unless they can secure a modest profit margin, at least, from their farming.
Tim O’Sullivan from Sneem was speaking after a Beef Plan meeting at Castleisland Mart on Monday night, which aimed to provide information on the movement and get new members signed up in Kerry.
The event, Mr O’Sullivan explained, was attended by TDs Martin Ferris, John Brassil, and Michael and Danny Healy-Rae, as well as Councillor Toiréasa Ferris and local election candidate Pat Lyne.
The beef plan is wide-ranging and made up 86 points aimed at securing a viable future for beef-farming in Ireland. The group says many farmers are working at or below the cost of production and facing into an uncertain future.
Among its many aims are to have factories pay a minimum base price so farmers are given a margin above the average cost of production; the roll-out of purchasing groups to allow direct purchase from manufacturers and importers; and the roll-out of producer groups.
An abattoir run by a co-operative of farmers has also been discussed, but this was described by Mr O’Sullivan as “a more long-term venture”.
Monday night’s meeting followed a similar meeting at Kenmare Mart late last year.
Mr O’Sullivan said the situation in Kerry, if the financial situation does not improve, could be especially precarious.
While he said many farmers have moved from beef farming to dairy farming, this is not a viable option for many farmers in this county, where much land is not suitable for dairy farming.
A spokesperson told The Kerryman last week that there are around 5,000 beef farmers in Kerry.
Mr O’Sullivan also said members are not “expecting us to become millionares out of this”, but to have enough to stay in the business and look after their families.
“We had around 400 people [at the meeting], maybe more,” Mr O’Sullivan said. “We were very happy with the turnout.
“I don’t have an up-to-date figure for Kerry, but we might be up to a couple of thousand members. The aspiration is to reach a minimum of 40,000 farmers nationwide.
“The main aim, in a nutshell, is to make it possible for farmers to cover their cost plus make a modest profit margin.
“In many cases, there is no margin whatsoever, and in quite a lot of cases they’re losing money. Nobody’s expecting us to become millionaires out of this, but we think farmers should be able to make some profit to feed their families and stay in business.
“Up until now, farmers have been sole agents when it comes to negotiating with factories for a price. In effect, farmers were purely price-takers – whereas the whole idea is that we’ll empower farmers by uniting them as a massive big group.”
Among the discussions on the night that Mr O’Sullivan found most interesting was one about offal exports, which Bord Bia found was worth around €230m in exports to Ireland in 2017, an average of €135 per animal. A fair share of this for farmers could be one area to explore to secure a better financial situation for beef farmers, Mr O’Sullivan feels.
“Whatever the case, we feel the farmer’s status is very low in comparison to the other big stakeholders like factories and retailers,” he said. “Our focus is on protecting family farms, where animals are well seen after and outdoors for eight or nine months of the year, weather depending.”