Northern Ireland joins calls to examine astonishing level of market control...

NBA Northern Ireland joins calls to examine astonishing level of market control of Anglo-Irish cattle slaughterers.
May 13th 2009
Finishers across Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland (ROI), are angry that their slaughter cattle prices are moving backwards at the same time as those in Britain inch upwards, says the National Beef Association’s Northern Ireland chairman, Oisin Murnion.
But he thinks feeders operating inside England, Scotland and Wales ought to be cross as well because the depressed prices in both the north and south of Ireland are dragging down the value of British cattle too.
“One of the reasons that British prices, which up until the beginning of May had risen for seven weeks in succession, are so much stronger is because premium retailers are prepared to pay for British beef – which should include the Northern Ireland product,” explained Mr Murnion.
“But buyer competition is another factor. Although the UK’s all powerful supermarkets make it difficult for factories operating anywhere in the UK and the ROI to make money, it is obvious that GB abattoirs have less chance of forcing down the price of farmers’ cattle to truly disastrous levels.”
“This is because the auction system is relatively strong in many British regions and the huge number of medium sized British abattoirs, which in general terms do not supply supermarkets, generate additional safety for the seller because they slaughter around half the cattle on offer and give the biggest plants no chance of dominating the market like they do over here.”
“Unfortunately there is very little competition in Northern Ireland and the ROI because the auction system for prime cattle was carefully eliminated decades ago and buying in both the North, and the South, is dominated by only a handful of companies - most of which own plants on each side of the border,” said Mr Murnion.
“The difficulty for the British feeder, and therefore the really bad news for those in Northern Ireland and the ROI, is created by the fact that most of these companies own factories in Britain too and use them to funnel in cheaper beef from Northern Ireland, and even cheaper beef from the ROI, into the British retail system – thereby deliberately reducing the price of cattle on both sides of the Irish Sea.” 
“This is an astonishing level of market control and finishers in the ROI have reacted by accusing slaughter companies of operating a deliberately contrived quota system – in which each agrees to reduce competition levels by buying its cattle within a previously agreed weekly maximum.”
“This being the case the National Beef Association joins with them in calling for the ROI’s Minister of Agriculture to release the weekly slaughter figures for its plants so those outside slaughtering circles can make up their own minds about these accusations,” Mr Murnion added.

For more information contact:
Oisin Murnion, chairman NBA Northern Ireland.
Tel: 02841 765 082