Beef Prices – ICMSA say factories “couldn’t care less” about finishers’ losses and point to 41,000 tonnes of beef imported here just last year

The Chairperson of ICMSA’s Livestock Committee, Michael O’Connell, has said that could not be more obvious that factories “could not care less” about the punishing losses being inflicted on finishers at current prices. Mr. O’Connell observed that cattle finishers are currently receiving €1/kg less than when the majority of these cattle were bought.   

“Base prices of €6.60 or €6.70 are not sustainable when these cattle were bought at base prices were €7.70 and 7.80c/kg.   We can compare like-with-like in other member states and the UK, but these are irrelevant as they are not buying our cattle.   Irish processors need to be held accountable, and we will not stop highlighting this kind of slippery nonsense where they hide behind third-hand stories put about by agents at the mart rings. They need to show some respect for the farmer finishers and breakdown where they think the market is heading and finally admit that some of the problems – that are obvious to all – might be originating from within their own gates. They can start by explaining why the weekly kill has dropped to in and around 30,000 per week, and don’t insult our intelligence by citing ‘supply instability’; they wouldn’t kill them when they had them, so it’s definitely not that”, said Mr. O’Connell.

The ICMSA Livestock Chairperson noted that this is the fourth successive week when processors have moved to ‘pull’ prices while simultaneously telling some farmers that they might have to wait up to three weeks to get their cattle slaughtered.

“This is just transparent nonsense; when cattle are fit, they need to be killed.  Cattle are in sheds since the middle of October when the weather turned and with intensive feeding regimes, they are getting stale and need to be processed.  The feed conversion efficiency ratio reduces, the thrive is gone out of the cattle and we are in the most expensive time of year to feed.   Factories want farmers to feed cattle, they talk about sustainability and ‘farm-to-fork’ – and then won’t kill them.  There is nothing sustainable about holding factory-fit cattle a month longer than they should be held.  How can this business model work?   Farmers are not charities; they cannot work for nothing and be left for up to a month trying to get cattle killed.  We have had a massive volume of callers venting frustration at being ‘fobbed off’ and delayed when trying to book them in and notably without any commitment on price.  Waiting three to four weeks to get cattle killed when they are dropping 10c per kg per week is putting further losses of up to €150/€160 per head excluding feeding on top of the losses of up to €400 per head in the drop in beef price from buying to selling. We are being done here and we know it – and so do the factories”, said Mr. O’Connell.

Why were 41,000 tonnes of beef imported into Republic of Ireland in 2025?

Mr. O’Connell highlighted a serious issue within the supply chain which must be addressed: “maybe it is time for the Minister for Agriculture, Food & Marine to intervene and ask questions as to why 41,000 tons of beef were imported into the Republic of Ireland in 2025.   ICMSA previously called for a register of all businesses importing beef into ROI and it’s time we found out ‘who, where and for what’ .   We are completely self-sufficient in terms of beef produced and dependent on exports of beef.  Why is there a need for 41,000 tons of beef to be imported into the country?   This is the equivalent to 118,000 steers based on the average carcass weight of 347kg for 2025 or – put another way – an extra 2,270 cattle per week killed.  The obvious reason why we have this volume of beef being imported into Ireland against a background of complete self-sufficiency in beef is market manipulation and altering fundamental demand-supply ratios.”, said Mr. O’Connell.

The ICMSA Chairperson said that the importers of this beef need to be transparent regarding the origin, processing location and labelling of this imported beef. He described as a “downright insult” on the part of the factories to expect farmers who have fed cattle all winter to face competition from inferior produce from other countries and he called for the Office of the Agri Food Regulator to investigate these concerns in the supply chain as well as collapse of beef prices over the last few months.

“There is Irish beef sitting on the same shelves in the UK as Australian and Brazilian beef. Brexit is now starting to become more of an issue as we compete with an inferior product from other countries, particularly South America.   What has the last couple of months taught us in terms of Brazilian beef and the attitudes of Irish farmers?  The factories can blame all around them and try and ‘spoof’ us on the so-called inconsistency of supply in the fringe months of the year.  But each of the big processors in the Republic have a number of processing plants in the UK.   They are selling out Irish farmers – their own businesses’ lifeblood – for inferior products on UK shelves.  They are not fooling anyone here except themselves: either their sales and marketing teams have been asleep, or the factories are profiteering at the expense of the farmers. It’s one of those two – and only one of those two”, concluded Mr. O’Connell.

Ends       23 March 2026

Michael O’Connell, 086-8551015

Chairperson, ICMSA Livestock Committee

Or

Cathal MacCarthy, 087-6168758

ICMSA Press Office