Huge upswing in stock going North underpins price stability

There is no appreciable change in factory prices, as the table above shows.

With 36,383 cattle slaughtered at exporting plants in the week ending June 21, you could argue that the industry has done well, given what it has been through during the Covid-19 outbreak.

At one level this is true, but demand in Britain and Northern Ireland has reached such a pitch that we’ve seen a remarkable upswing in stock being shipped across the border for processing. Bord Bia figures show that 2,026 went North for the week ending June 21, as opposed to just 464 for the same week in 2019.

However, with restrictions easing and with wholesalers in the Republic reported to have been very busy moving product last week ahead of yesterday’s limited reopening of the hospitality sector, demand remains strong.

Strongly

Multiply up that increased demand all over the continent and you can see why over the last month, prices across the UK and Europe have recovered so strongly.

The German market, along with ourselves, saw the biggest hit, with prices there for R3 bulls, excluding VAT, bottoming out around the end of April at €3.37/kg; today they are back up to €3.55/kg.

Maurice Brosnan of Gortatlea Mart summed up the situation neatly: “Factories appear half anxious for cattle.” A case of the glass being half empty, as opposed to half full?

Recent reports raised the issue of worker safety in Irish meat plants regarding Covid19. Two workers were interviewed for a radio show back in mid-May, talking about how the industry was adapting to requirements in relation to social distancing, PPE availability, screening etc. They were interviewed a second time last week. One claimed that still not enough had been done, while the second lady said measures adopted by her plant had eased her worries about the virus.

Cormac Healy of Meat Industry Ireland, on the same programme, stressed that “the absolute and singular priority throughout this is the health and safety of staff”.

He said there are no active cases in meat plants and at all times MII members have implemented health and safety advice as offered by the

2,026 went North in the week ending June 21, compared to 464 for the same week in 2019

HSA and the HSE.

The issue of low worker pay at meat plants then took centre stage, with suggestions that staff felt they had no choice but to come to work despite any reservations about Covid-19 because they could not afford not to. Mr Healy did not accept this point.

The meat industry has always claimed it is a low-margins business. Mr Healy ably represented the interests of his members, although I felt the issue of workers’ pay did unsettle him slightly. I wonder was he remembering how unsettling last autumn’s farmer’s protests on low returns became?

My colleague John Heney recently suggested in these pages that farmer representation might be better served by employing professionals. I wonder what it would take to pry Mr Healy away from his current employers?