Mr. Enda Monaghan:

I am a sheep farmer and I can state that the mark-up is 15% on top of the quoted price. The quoted price for conventional lamb is in the region of €4.50 per kilogramme. I get 15% on top of that, which would bring it to €5.17. If he or she is quoted €4.50 on the day, the conventional farmer would probably get €4.60 or €4.65, plus ten cents for quality assurance. That is built into our 15%. The biggest problem I face is that I live in the west of Ireland. There is one factory in Ireland where lambs are slaughtered at it is located in Camolin, County Wexford. I put my lambs in a trailer and I bring them to Tullamore, which is a two-hour journey. They are taken from there on a truck. It is a cost-process and I would be better off if I sold the animals in Tuam. I am an organic farmer, however, and I sell them into the organic market. We need a factory to process lambs in the west of Ireland

. Most of the organic lambs are not sold into the organic market because of the feed. At this time of the year, they need feed. A survey was carried out which showed that 70% of lambs are sold in August, September or October. The factories want them all year round. They were saying that if we could guarantee them a year-round supply, they would chase more markets for us. I am told that my lamb is being sold in the finest restaurants in Paris and throughout Europe. We also discovered that the worst cuts of the lamb are being put into baby food. There is a big German baby food company called HiPP Organic that is using our lamb and beef for protein in baby food. In Europe, the contamination levels relating to their own beef and lamb are so high that they can mix our lamb and beef with it in order to reduce the heavy-metal contamination level, etc. It is a premium market but we do not get a premium for the product. All the good cuts of lamb can go to restaurants and shops, and all the bad cuts are made into a paste. We have seen the process. The paste is then frozen and sent to Germany. The baby food is a higher standard than organic. It is all tested in Germany and if it is not right, it is sent back.