Mr. Cormac Healy:

Steers have tended back a small amount but they were up last week. Our overall kill is up and while our overall young bull kill is down by approximately 4% it was down considerably more than that several weeks ago. Our overall slaughtering figure is up by 7%. The industry is working to manage the situation. It is a balancing act between a difficult market and lower demand but the industry has increased the kill of young bulls to deal with the backlog, in line with the commitments it gave. The issue of price was raised. I recognise that price is important to an individual producer who is about to sell cattle but we must also consider the sector in an overall context. The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has reported that between 1 January and today prices fell by between 5 cent and 7 cent across the full mix of steers and heifers. The Chairman referred to contracts in feedlots. I do not have specific numbers but the industry has been encouraged to develop contracts for the winter finishing part of the business because we need year round supplies.

I am not familiar with the specific case of similar Irish and English cuts being sold for the same price but it tells me little in an overall sense. I cannot base an analysis on a photograph of two cuts of meat. The industry deserves more than that kind of analysis. It does not suggest the price at which the product was purchased. We are selling 50% of the animals processed in Ireland, by weight, to the UK market. There will always be a premium for UK red tractor domestic beef compared to imported beef but we are at the higher end of price levels in Europe. It is perhaps regrettable that the market is not continually climbing but I do not know of any other agricultural commodity that does not experience ups and downs over the long term.