The recent decrease in beef cattle prices paid to farmers has been criticised as “opportunism” on the part of processors.
Declan Hanrahan, the national livestock chairperson of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA), claimed that processors have “taken advantage of the difficulties farmers experienced this spring”.
“Some farmers were forced into earlier and expensive finishing of beef cattle due to the weather conditions in the spring and factories are now attempting to take advantage of these farmers by dropping the price,” he claimed.
According to Hanrahan, the EU market is expected to push on in terms of price, with tightening supplies and increasing demand for beef over the summer.
He also said that the UK market “remains very strong”, with the price for cattle there at the moment the equivalent of almost 70c/kg above the average Irish price.
According to Hanrahan, production in both the UK and EU is projected to be below last year’s levels, and he called for beef prices to move on as seasonal demand increases.
“All this points to extremely tight supplies of finished cattle for the remainder of the year,” he said.
“If the Bord Bia projections are correct for the remainder of the year, we are looking at over 70,000 fewer between now and year-end compared to last year.
“The strong performance of live exports this year will also reduce supplies for factories. Store and finished cattle exports to date this year are up 7,000 and predicted to grow further,” the IFA livestock chair said.
He also said that Northern Irish buyers are currently “very active” in marts and are driving the trade for forward store and finished cattle.
“Farmers should strongly resist attempts by factories to reduce the price. Demand is strong and factories are very anxious for cattle,” Hanrahan said.
“Prices of 5c/kg to 10c/kg above quotes are freely available, bringing base prices for steers and heifers to between €5.10/kg and €5.25/kg despite lower quotes. Cow prices remain strong, ranging from €4.30/kg to over €5/kg, depending on grade,” he added.