Mr. Patrick Kent:

I thank the Chairman for the invitation to this meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine. We welcome the opportunity to engage with the committee on the future of beef in the context of Food Wise 2025.

The beef sector is in crisis. This time it is different. There are many challenges, ranging from Brexit to climate change to vegan ideology being used as a front for multimillion dollar investments in fake meat. Our members are hurting badly. The ICSA estimates that prime beef producers lose almost €4 million more per week on steers, heifers and young bulls than in 2015, the last full year before Brexit. The base price today of €3.70 for an R-grade steer is well below the real cost of production, which the ICSA estimates is at least €5 per kilogram if we allow for a farmer’s own labour cost. Many farmers have had extreme difficulty in having bulls killed. The level of despondency is palpable.

The Food Wise 2025 strategy was devised before Brexit. The prevailing ethos of Food Wise 2025 was the potential to expand significantly our beef exports. It was drafted against the backdrop of the abolition of milk quotas but it did not take a balanced approach to the challenges faced by cattle, sheep or tillage farmers. The main outcome was a plan to expand from €10 billion to €19 billion in agrifood exports but there was no focus on how to expand the income of beef farmers. Today, beef farmers have not seen a single cent of extra income from expanded agrifood exports. Food Wise 2025 considered climate change but did not foresee the extent to which climate change would dominate our agricultural outlook, in respect of marketing beef or Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, reform. I was a member of the committee for Food Wise 2025 but my concerns were not listened to in the rush to expand. What we have is a plan that underpins massive dairy expansion but ignores the needs of the vast majority of 130,000 farmers.

That was before Brexit. Much of the focus has been on what will happen if there is a no-deal crash-out. The extension to October, however, prolongs the uncertainty. For beef producers, Brexit has effectively happened. The ICSA met the European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Phil Hogan, in Brussels last week to make the case that the beef sector still needs a rescue package from Brussels, even in the context of continued uncertainty. The Government must strongly push for this. The relaxation of state aid limits is welcome but totally inadequate. The ICSA believes that a package from Brussels should be directly linked to cattle slaughtered by winter finishers. Their losses in price compared with last year vary but are typically in the order of €75 to €100 per head on heifers and can be as much as €200 or more per head on a typical young bull, with account taken of price cuts and weight penalties.

I will ask my colleague, Mr. Edmund Graham, beef chairman, to address the issues of market development, competitiveness and environmental sustainability.