Local expert says Sligo farmers ‘absolutely entitled’ to expect a Q4 surge in their beef price

THE Chairperson of ICMSA’s Livestock Committee has said that farmers are “absolutely entitled” to expect a steady rise in beef prices from this week forward to the Christmas period. Prominent Enniscrone farmer and recognised beef expert Des Morrison said that conditions, prices and patterns “practically exactly” mirrored those that applied last year when, according to the ICMSA, R3 steer and heifer prices rose week-on-week over the same period ending up by 30c per kg at the year’s end. Mr Morrison said that the figures for the UK were positive and while the kill figures are up on the same period last year, there was absolutely no reason why factories were continuing to pay the current unjustifiably low prices unless they had made a conscious decision to do so, he added.

“We’re looking closely at the data here and can find no reason whatsoever that the steep price incline that kicked-in at this time last year would not to be repeated this year. In fact, the data points even more emphatically towards a weekon-week price hike from now to year end. We’ve added Kuwait and China as overseas markets in the interim and the Euro exchange rate with Sterling is effectively the same at £0.895 a year ago and £0.89 today. If that Q4 beef price rise doesn’ t happen then all our very well grounded fears that the factories are deliberately disregarding the data and underpaying on cattle will be confirmed.

Last year, in a market environment that wasn’ t as conducive to an upswing in beef prices as we see this year, we saw a 30 cents per kg surge from the end of October to the year’s end. We want, need and expect a similar price rise this year and the factories are hereby on notice that it would want to be forthcoming immediately”, he said.