ICSA beef chair Edmund Graham has called on the meat industry to explain why vast quantities of beef are being imported into the country and where it is ending up. “Figures published by the CSO show that 14,119t of beef was imported into Ireland in the first three months of this year which is equivalent to over 40,000 head of cattle. For a beef exporting nation that is a lot of technically unnecessary beef coming in and we want to know their justification for it,” he said.

“Beef farmers are under serious pressure at the minute with factories doing everything in their power to bring prices down. This is despite the fact that the cattle coming onto the market now must be among the most expensive we’ve ever produced due to the astronomical increase in input costs last year.”

“One the one hand processors are telling us the usual ‘woe is me’ tale about demand being down, but on the other hand huge quantities of beef are being shipped in. It just doesn’t make sense.”

Mr Graham said he is also calling on Minister McConalogue to provide more detail around where this beef is being imported from and which markets it is servicing. “While we know the majority of beef imports are coming in from the UK, we do not know if it actually originated in the UK, or if it came from further afield via UK processing facilities. Either way, it’s a lot of beef and we need assurances that our world class traceability standards are not being compromised. In our view there is no reason for our multinational beef processors or retailers to import beef under the noses of local suppliers, and then complain about demand being down.”