A delegation from the Irish Farmers Association (IFA) held a meeting with Meat Industry Ireland (MII) this week, at which representatives from the main sheep processors were present.<\/p>\n
Sean Dennehy, the IFAs national sheep chairperson, and other personnel from the associations National Sheep Committee, met with representatives of Irish Country Meats, Kepak, Kildare Chilling and Dawn Meats.<\/p>\n
The need for strong, viable lamb prices and market prospects for 2020 were top of the agenda. In addition, we discussed specifications, quality assurance, EID [electronic identification] implementation, factory charges and sheep policy issues, Dennehy explained.<\/p>\n
Dennehy said that the IFA delegation made it very clear to the factories that sheep farmer incomes were under severe pressure and lamb prices needed to continue rising.<\/p>\n
We were very strong in the argument that carcass weight limitswere way too restrictive at the factories and new season lamb needed to open at a minimum carcass weight of 21kgs, Dennehy said.<\/p>\n
We discussed the need for a lot more work by the Government in opening the important Chinese and US markets to Irish lamb exports, he added.<\/p>\n
Now is the time to make progress in China and the Government cannot allow this opportunity to pass by, Dennehy insisted.<\/p>\n
Dennehy and his team also raised the issue of the quality assurance bonus, urging the processors to increases the payment to 30c\/kg.<\/p>\n
Some plants have increased the bonus from 10c\/kg to 15c\/kg but a lot more needs to be done to properly reward farmers for quality assurance, he argued.<\/p>\n
The processors informed the IFA delegation that all of them were now in a position to provide farmers with a full-print out of their dispatch docket when the farmers were selling lambs.<\/p>\n
IFA put it very strongly to MII that the charges some plants are applying under the Clean Sheep Policy are totally unfair. Clipping charges on Category B lambs is wrong, said Dennehy.<\/p>\n
He also called for the abolition of scrapie and SRM charges.<\/p>\n
We also had a good discussion with the processing sector on sheep policy issues, including the need for a 30\/ewe targeted support for sheep farmers; Brexit; CAP 2020; and International trade deals.<\/p>\n
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IFA meet with factories on lamb price and sheep issues - Agriland<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A delegation from the Irish Farmers Association (IFA) held a meeting with Meat Industry Ireland (MII) this week, at which representatives from the main sheep processors were present. Continue reading