Rival factories coy on plans to follow ABP’s electronic payment lead

Processors urged to ‘provide the same facility’

Moving on: Factories are being asked to offer electronic payments to farmer suppliers. Photo: PA

Ciaran Moran Twitter Email

April 27 2021 02:00 AM

Dawn Meats and Kepak have refused to confirm whether they will be following ABP’s move to offer farmer suppliers the option of electronic payment.

ABP’s decision was described as “long overdue” by IFA president Tim Cullinan.

When asked by the Farming Independent last week, Kepak and Dawn refused to confirm a similar move.

A Dawn spokesperson said: “Currently payments are made by postal cheque… As part of our wider Covid-19 protocols… there is no requirement for suppliers to attend sites for receipt of livestock payments.”

Kepak refused to comment.

At a recent meeting with Meat Industry Ireland (MII), IFA called for all meat processors to offer Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) as a method of payment to farmers for cattle and sheep sales.

Cullinan called ABP’s decision “a positive move”, adding: “We are now requesting that all other processors provide the same facility.”

IFA livestock chairman Brendan Golden said ICOS recently said almost all of its marts are offering the option of EFT, when requested.

IFA pointed out that lodging cheques will become more difficult with the imminent exit of Ulster Bank and the closure of more than 70 rural Bank of Ireland branches.

It comes as a meeting of the Beef Taskforce last week heard that at 422c/kg, beef prices are at a five-year high.

MII said that while there is a gap with UK prices, Irish price is actually 30c/kg ahead of the basket of EU member states that take some 45pc of our overall beef exports.

MII admitted UK retail demand was strong, but said only three of the top ten UK retailers stock Irish beef.

“Not all of our beef goes to the UK and of the beef that does, not all of the cuts go into retail,” it said.

Outrage

At the meeting, ICSA beef chair Edmund Graham expressed outrage at the delay in inviting meat factory bosses to the Beef Taskforce table.

“We requested that individual meat processors be brought in to answer serious questions about the uniform cuts to beef prices in February, and to explain the huge differential between Irish and UK steer prices,” he said.

“We are not getting the answers we need from their representative body, and the delay in getting the factory bosses in to speak for themselves is unacceptable.”

Macra president Thomas Duffy said that at a presentation at the meeting by major retailers and sellers of Irish beef, only one retailer cited an unwillingness to stock Irish beef from under 16-month-old bulls.