Farm organisations have reacted furiously to reports that ABP Food Group has supplied 400 tonnes of Polish beef to Sainsbury and Asda.
IFA president, Tim Cullinan said at a time when Irish beef farmers are facing collapsing prices, it is “incredible” that the ABP Food Group, an Irish-owned company, would bring in beef from Poland to stock supermarket shelves in the UK.
“The European beef market is in turmoil. This has impacted more severely in Ireland as we are an export nation.”
“We are being told by processors like ABP that the market for Irish beef has collapsed, yet we see the Irish-owned company filling orders with Polish beef. It is a ‘kick in the teeth’ for Irish beef farmers,”
“The ABP Group should front up and give farmers a proper explanation as to why they chose to do this,” he added.
Detailed submission
The IFA said it has made a detailed submission this week to the Irish Government and the EU Commission looking for market stabilisation measures.
“We made it clear last week that the whole sector needs to pull together to put a case forward to the Commission. I made the point that this crisis provided an opportunity for the processing sector to build trust by supporting farmers at this time. What has happened here will only serve to make matters worse,” the farm leader concluded.
