Page 4 - Beef Taskforce News Today

Call for action after inexplicable cut to beef prices Reporter: );  ); Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association (ICSA) beef chair Edmund Graham has said the pace at which the Beef Taskforce is conducting its business is far too slow and has called for greater scope for farm organisations to compel the Taskforce to meet. “Beef prices have been inexplicably cut in recent weeks and ICSA wants answers as to why this is happening,” he said.  “Unfortunately, we have been left high and dry...

Frustrations over a lack of clarity on the next sitting of the Beef Market Taskforce flared in the Dáil yesterday. In parliamentary questions, Michael Fitzmaurice independent TD for Roscommon-Galway urged Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue to consider live streaming taskforce meetings from now on, while Clare independent Michael McNamara demanded answers on why the stakeholder grouping has not sat since December 2020. The heightened pressure to convene the taskforce comes as farmers have...

The Minister for Agriculture, Bord Bia and the country’s meat processors are being urged to provide “absolute commitment” to the development of a suckler beef brand. Speaking at this evening’s ICSA agm the farm organisation’s new president, Dermot Kelleher, called on Minister Charlie McConalogue to demonstrate this “drive” by attaching “conditionality” to the €100m Brexit support scheme for the food processing sector announced last month. “There must be absolute commitment...

Public consultation on how to strengthen GI system launched by commission The European Commission has launched a public consultation on how to strengthen the geographical indications (GI) system. It is inviting citizens and organisations as well as national and regional public authorities to contribute to the assessment. The EU protects almost 3,400 names of specific products – agricultural products and foodstuffs, fishery and aquaculture products, wines, spirit drinks – under one of its ...

As the old saying goes, ‘he who pays the piper calls the tune’. However, when the Beef Stakeholders meetings were set up in 2019 following the beef protests and blockades, the interests of the consumers who buy beef were apparently overlooked. It appears this oversight is now coming back to haunt the members of the Department of Agriculture’s Beef Task Force. As part of the Irish Beef Sector Agreement (September 15, 2019) 2019, it was agreed to undertake “an independent review of market...

The Department of Agriculture and the Embassy of Ireland in Beijing are liaising with Chinese authorities on the resumption of market access for Irish beef, the Farming Independent can confirm. The development follows mounting pressure from Meat Industry Ireland (MII) for the Government to intervene in “a diplomatic effort” to secure the reopening of the Chinese market for Irish beef, as Brexit looms large over the sector. Trade to the Chinese market has been blocked for over six months due...

Beef Plan Movement representatives on the Beef Market Taskforce have expressed their objection to the findings of the Grant Thornton report on the Irish beef industry which was presented to the taskforce last week. Reacting to the report, the taskforce members appointed to represent Beef Plan – Dermot O’Brien and Enda Fingleton – said they “demanded further input at taskforce level and requested that a full sitting of the taskforce be dedicated to this very important topic, as a one-ite...

Consumers claim to be willing to pay more for suckler beef that “ticks all the boxes” on being pasture-raised, welfare friendly, natural, sustainable and tasty. The development - a finding of Bord Bia’s ‘Suckler Beef Consumer Study’ conducted in January and February 2019 - was outlined at the first meeting of a stakeholder monitoring group charged with overseeing the development of a suckler specific brand over the next three years. The oversight group is comprised of stakeholders of ...

ICMSA president Pat McCormack “We made good ground initially, and it’s no fault of the chairman, but everybody needs to realise the urgency that’s facing the industry. “Our beef industry doesn’t have years to stutter along and be revitalised at that stage. It needs help and it needs it 12 months ago.” ‘No specifics’ Moving to Grant Thornton’s Department-commissioned market and customer requirements draft report - which found “strong market demand” for cattle slaughtered un...

Evidence of “strong market demand” for cattle slaughtered under 30 months of age has been identified across foodservice, retail and third country markets, according to a draft independent report.  The finding was presented to the Beef Taskforce as part of a Department of Agriculture commissioned review into market and customer requirements relating to the four ‘in spec’ bonus criteria currently in operation in the Irish beef sector. The requirements became a significant bone of content...