Where’s the beef?

By Andrew Bushe

DUBLIN — Irish agriculture has been plunged into crisis as the leadership of the Irish Farmers Association dramatically resigned en masse in an escalating cattle price row with meat processing plants around the country.

The increasingly bitter dispute between farmers and beef barons has brought the meat factories to a virtual standstill and the chaos threatens millions of pounds worth of export orders and the jobs of about 3,500 workers in the processing plants.

The standoff has unleashed a simmering anger among farmers involved in the winter beef-fattening trade, who say they are losing money.

They feel they have been short changed on prices for their cattle as the market recovers from the impact of the BSE "mad cow" disease crisis.

The resignation of farm leader Tom Parlon and most of the IFA’s 68-strong national council followed a High Court judge’s decision on Monday to increase the fine on the organization to an unprecedented £500,000 a day for illegal blockading of about 40 meat plants.

The Irish Meat Association, representing the processors, had been granted an injunction against the IFA blockades last week.

The court had already imposed a £100,000 a day fine on the IFA for the picketing in defiance of a court order outside the plants for five days — a bill of £500,000.

Stunned by the scale of the new threatened daily fines — which would have seriously damage the IFA’s finances — the council met in emergency session in Portlaoise.

When the council, elected by 85,000 IFA members, decided to comply with the court order and direct members to desist from action, Parlon resigned. "I can’t go along with it," he said.

He said he believed that support from the IFA grassroots was 100 percent behind him.

A statement after the meeting said the decision meant the IFA would "not be involved in or promoting picketing."

After Parlon stepped down, the entire council of IFA also resigned except for the general secretary, national treasurer and returning officer.

A profuse apology was made in court on Tuesday, the £500,000 daily fine was lifted, outstanding fines of £500,000 were paid and the judge warned he would deal severely with individual pickets. The matter will be reviewed by the court later in the week.

An IFA spokesman denied the mass resignation was a legal ploy to avoid further court penalties. Pickets continued on plants after the resignations with farmers saying it was an attempt to break the power of the IFA lobby.

Justice Diarmuid O’Donovan had said he did not intend imprisoning and making a martyr out of some member of the farming community.

The dispute started when the meat factories passed on the cost of a Department of Agriculture veterinary inspection charge to farmers.

Minister for Agriculture Joe Walsh — who chaired two negotiating sessions over the weekend — said that the veterinary charge was now off the agenda.

The dispute has escalated into a row about the prices being paid by the meat plants to farmers who are looking for an extra £50 a head per animal.

The minister said farmers wanted price transparency as they were suspicious that there was price fixing and a cartel was operating.

He said he was on standby to chair further talks and the IMA said that if pickets were lifted they would suspend slaughtering for 48 hours to allow time for a resolution to be found.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said he wants to see a speedy solution to the blockade and the row will be considered by the cabinet.