The need for a €1 per kg price rise for beef was highlighted this week by the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association. Beef Chairman Sean Scully called on supermarkets and other meat retailers to face up to the need for a €1/kg price rise for beef farmers. According to Mr Scully, this could be delivered to farmers, requiring a 13 percent increase in retail beef prices, provided that the retailers and processors did not try to cream off any of the increase. ‘In reality, the €1 increase to the farmer should result in no more than a 68c increase in the cost of a 12 oz sirloin steak or 66c on a half-kilo tray of lean mince, based on current supermarket prices. This is because the farmer gets not much more than one-third of the final retail price paid by the consumer.’ To put it in a longer-term context, the consumer price index shows an increase of 15.7 percent for all goods in 2006 compared with 2001, but the figure for food is a rise of just 3.5 percent. In reality, farmers are getting the same price now for beef as they got throughout the 1980s.’
This Week’s Digital Edition
