William Aird: Farmers Losing €350 as Beef Prices Collapse

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]Okay.

[00:00:02]>> Welcome everybody here today and I read your opening statement. And can I just say I'd like to put like you could hear like it's a lovely day out there today but I can tell you one thing there's very dark clouds over the whole factory in Ireland at the moment the whole the whole beef industry if you don't mind me saying so I'm going to just open my remarks by giving you just some statistics that's where we are at the moment, all right? This time last year bulls are making 795, right? The bulls were killed on Monday you know a person that killed bulls at 670 and today they're quoted at 640.

[00:00:30]Like you can see what those cattle you know the what that particular person farmer ordinary individual like you and I and anybody else here today that's farming you can see what they're losing, right? I give you another statistic cattle bought in and we'd say at 2420 in October November sold out in March at the very same price actually 20 euros less they made 240, Those cattle had to be fed and I'm talking about just feed at 350 ahead nothing else just 350. They're down 350 euros ahead, right? So what is the person to do when the traditional farmer that we're always talking about who is the family farmer? Well here is the family farmer that traditionally had a suckler herd last year everyone was a good humor they got a great great price with it. Now we're being told that it was a flip, all right? I know people that they've got out bull heifers back into the game again delighted with themselves now we're back to square one and maybe even in a worse position that they ever were, all right?

[00:01:24]You take the what's happened now you have the factories coming in contract rearing where I as a farmer can go out and just rear the cows for the farmer and that's the way it's going. So where is the family farmer going to be? The old traditional way is going to die and die completely because there's so much volatility volatility in the market that no single farmer can carry that burden and we'll see it today. And can I say this is we talk about being bored being audited for what?

[00:01:54]Now look at the market being flooded with Australian beef and and all different other country Brazilian beef and everything. And none of them mattered. And we are all here producing the best beef. And here's what we're getting now, the slap in the face like that with our beef.

[00:02:09]Losing 350 and 4 euros ahead. I just want the people to understand the pressure that's out there at the moment, the human mental pressure that this is causing to people. And I just want to ask a few questions, but I'm giving that from the heart. No one's speaking on behalf of people that I've spoken to that are at the width end for the last three three three weeks and a month. And these are young farmers that we are encouraging into to farm. And they're in such a such a volatility market that you can't tell me where we will be this time next year. Nobody can tell us. Nobody could tell us that beef would be at the price it is today at the quotation of 640 and going down. And if I said to you, "Where is it going to stop?" You won't be able to tell me.

[00:02:51]Nobody will be able That's that's the market we're living in. And that's the way that these people have been asked to farm. Straight up to you, but I would just like to ask a couple of questions to you, all right? If cattle prices are historically strong, can you specify clearly what proportion of the retail beef price is actually returning to the primary producer, the farmer, right?

[00:03:08]Versus retained in processing and retail margins.

[00:03:12]And a quick answer to that cuz I haven't much time.

[00:03:15]>> Uh what proportion of the retail price is going back to the farmer? Well, I don't have a calculation for our figure, but let me just come back to where you started and then I'll try and work my way around to answering that question.

[00:03:27]Uh you've you've given us exactly our assessment of where we see this market.

[00:03:33]You've talked about volatility, and volatility is acutely extreme at the moment in this short period of 1 year.

[00:03:42]It has gone from a situation where at the end of 2024, and you will remember this from the farming >> Sorry, I had that to say.

[00:03:50]I can't wait with time. I beg your pardon. You have three minutes left. And I know exactly what you were going to say to me.

[00:03:55]>> No, but but but you've you've talked out all the issues. And I'm trying to explain to you that that is exactly what we're feeling in the market. And what we're seeing in the market is a complete downturn in the value that's coming uh processing level from retailers and wholesalers.

[00:04:12]>> what's happening because they're bringing it in without it being before B I R.

[00:04:15]>> So So the impact >> That's it.

[00:04:17]>> the impact of the euro >> sorry. I I want to >> So you ask the next >> No, I'm sorry. You don't want the answer. That's from that. I have to ask the >> I I >> When are you going to give me extra time?

[00:04:26]>> I'll give you extra time.

[00:04:27]>> Right. That's That's why I have 10 questions answered here today.

[00:04:31]No, be fair to me now.

[00:04:32]I have got very serious questions on behalf of the people out there. Go ahead.

[00:04:36]>> Please go >> You'll give me the time. Go ahead.

[00:04:38]>> Deputy, I'm I'm happy to step in. Like there if you look at the agri-food regulation, the work the agri-food regulation has done over recent times, we've had very significant engagement.

[00:04:47]So there's a lot of public available information there now that shows the selling price of the beef leaving the factory. So if you look at what's happened, um the the the the the hindquarter uh selling price has declined from about €9.64 last September to about €8.75 today. So that's closely matching, you know, the fall, the decline in cattle prices over that period. The forequarter is is is the same and hasn't quite declined at the same rate. And that's because most of the high retail, the high value cuts, as you know, uh are from the hindquarter. But we're seeing challenges now in the manufacturing beef market also. So those forequarter prices are going to fall back. And that is that is the evidence. That is the evidence that shows the challenges in the marketplace at the moment.

[00:05:38]>> Can Can I go on to my second question?

[00:05:40]Are you giving me more time? I haven't the answer to that.

[00:05:42]>> You're within time.

[00:05:43]>> Oh, yeah, but they gave me the answer.

[00:05:44]Like I got that answer. The farmer's losing 350 to 375, all right? What is the factory losing? That's the answer I give back to them, all right? My second question is, given that MMI represent 22 28 processors, which you do, right? 28 sites. How do you respond to repeated farmer concerns that a small number of processors effectively set the price in a highly concentrated market? What's your answer to that? Yes or no?

[00:06:07]>> Farmers processors have followed market signals.

[00:06:11]Processors, if you look at 25 and don't tell me that's not relevant because it is.

[00:06:17]What we saw was the return to farmers.

[00:06:19]You saw where the prices went from 5 euro to 7.50 or thereabouts. That was following what was happening in the market. So, the proportion of payback to farmers is represented in those historically high figures.

[00:06:33]The very opposite, the exact opposite happened at the beginning of this year's where the this year where those wholesale prices dropped back quite significantly along the lines of the figures that they had mentioned. And there was a proportionate response to that in the marketplace. And bear in mind that every European country, including the UK who is not in the European Union, has seen the same fall back in prices that we have. This is not uniquely Irish. This is European. It's across the globe.

[00:07:04]>> bringing in meat.

[00:07:05]>> Everybody is doing the same thing in the market at the moment because everybody is facing the same market environment.

[00:07:11]>> kind of a position would we in if we didn't have and I want to acknowledge publicly the work that the live exporters do in this country and I want to thank them for the work they do. We sent out over 300,000 cattle over this country this year, right? And we sent out and I don't have the figure of the calf exports, but I can tell you >> You used You used the extra time for questions.

[00:07:28]>> Yeah, no, but I'm just saying it, right?

[00:07:30]My next question is My next question is Farm your Farmers will argue at the moment that the recent price drop was sudden and severe, all right? What specific actions did processors take to provide passing for and disproportionately onto the primary producer, the farmer.

[00:07:45]>> Well, look at the >> Yeah, well, look the we we acknowledge the challenges in the marketplace at the moment, deputy. That's very clear. Now, if you look at the sheep price and where it's at at the moment, it has continued to go up very high, and that's in response to market demand. We have the Eid festival at the end of the year. So, it's the exact opposite is happening in the beef sector recently. The demand simply isn't there. There's beef going into cold storage at the moment. We've seen as Philip said in his opening statement, we've seen beef steaks and beef joints decline by 37 and 70%. Like that is really, really significant is what has happened in the marketplace.

[00:08:21]The consumer has ultimately pushed back against the high price of beef in Europe and the UK, and we're seeing a market correction at the moment. And that that's the basic reality what's happened. Now, that is difficult. We understand it's very difficult for finishers at the moment. And they obviously had a very good year last year when prices went up very high, and it's a very difficult year for them at the moment.

[00:08:44]>> your salary next year.

[00:08:45]The No, you wouldn't. You know what I mean?

[00:08:47]>> Deputy, it's a bit of an irrelevant question.

[00:08:50]>> Deputy, it is. We're we're we're we're we we we acknowledge the difficulties the farmers are facing.

[00:08:56]>> year. You lose 350, and you're telling us if you made it last year, which you didn't, it was up around 200, right? So, therefore, you're you're in a negative situation straight away. But anyway, my next question was, will the MMI commit to full real-time transparency on pricing formulas, all right? Contract structures and export returns to farmers can independently verify how prices are set.

[00:09:16]>> Yes. Yes. Yes.

[00:09:18]And that's right through the regulator.

[00:09:21]The regulator will have additional powers next year, and we will comply with that. And we have complied with every request that has come from the regulator, and that can be independently verified as well.

[00:09:32]>> of the beef is exported, how do you justify the claim that Irish cattle The are fully market reflective when Irish farmers have no meaningful domestic price setting influence.

[00:09:40]>> So, we do export 90% of the beef.

[00:09:43]You're right. Therefore, we're very reliant on what the market demand is in the international marketplace. It won't be driven by what's happening here domestically. It'll be driven by what's happening in the main market. With 48% of our beef goes to the UK, 48% goes to the EU, and we have a very small percentage then goes to third country markets outside that. So, by and large, the price of beef what we get is determined by that marketplace. Not how many cattle we kill here domestically.

[00:10:12]Not Not other issues that you're making reference to. It's the marketplace in Europe and the UK in the main.

[00:10:19]>> I have one more question.