Leaders must see the bigger picture
Later today farming leaders will hold a summit to discuss what can be done to help the beef market. With prices suffering an almost double digit drop from a year ago, there are a lot of disgruntled people out there.
With a simmering anger in the industry, fingers are being pointed in various directions as to the culprits behind the low market price. At current levels, very few beef farmers will be making a profit and the vast majority are making big losses.
The processors are under fire over the lack of competition in the sector. Producers are blamed for supplying an irregular product – though not as bad as it used to be – and retailers are blamed for the big margins they make on selling beef.
And everyone blames QMS, the promotional body, for not doing more to increase sales, although all parts of the chain would complain if the promotional levy was to even be increased by a fraction.
Underlining the gravity of the situation and the depths of distrust between the various parts of the supply chain, the agricultural press are being excluded from the high level talks being hosted by the Scottish Government Rural Affairs Minister, Fergus Ewing.
The thinking behind the hacks being excluded must be that there will probably be a great deal of bloodletting as each link in the beef supply chain blames the other parts. This despite the press having already reported on various episodes of the “beef blame game” in recent months and it is likely that today’s meeting will continue in a similar vein.
The agricultural press will not be allowed to report any of this first hand
although we have been invited to join a 15-minute long “huddle” with the minister after the talks. Huddle sounds a bit intimate for the independent minded press, especially if the minister uses the occasion to announce the formation of a stakeholder working group or some such body to look into the failings in the beef sector.
Unfortunately for Mr Ewing, only a year or two have passed since he last set up a working group looking to the future of the beef industry. That one, under the astute chairmanship of Jim Mclaren, set out a series of long-term goals, all of which are still pertinent and relevant.
So what can be done in the short term to alleviate the pain in the beef industry and cease the moaning and groaning? The minister could try lobbing some money at the problem, especially now there is a Prime Minister keen to spread cash around like a benevolent, spendthrift and irresponsible uncle.
However, as the Irish beef farmers are finding out, injections of cash do not provide long-term solutions or create harmony in the sector. For those not following that saga, two months ago Irish beef farmers were awarded one hundred million euros, with half coming from the EU and the other half from its government to cure chronic lossmaking in the sector.
However, no sooner had the cash been announced than internal feuds started. The breeders wanted all the extra cash while the finishers wanted a share. The only thing they seemed to agree on was that the processors had not to get their mitts on any of it.
Meetings of the Irish farmers’ union were rancorous and split. There had not been such a heated debate since the chief executive of the union was found to have devised a scheme which transferred large sums of union reserves into his pockets.
These internal battles have quietened down with a formula for doling out the money but the short-term cash sticking plaster does not seem to have worked as the Irish Farmers Association have just tabled a long list of demands to sort out its beef industry. It is possible it has just left its tape deck on “repeat”.
The trouble with all the internal feuding is that it is happening at the same time as the vegan lobby is aggressively pursuing its “plant only” diet agenda and as the worldwide beef industry is getting kicked by almost everyone, including the supposedly neutral BBC for adding to greenhouse gas emissions and thus climate change.
It is to be hoped those taking part in the talks today see the bigger picture, which might be far more important to the future of the Scottish beef industry.